


A Problem Shared

by telperion_15



Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Canon, Angst, Developing Relationship, First Time, Love/Hate, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-13
Updated: 2012-03-13
Packaged: 2017-11-01 22:05:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telperion_15/pseuds/telperion_15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes help can come from the most unlikely of sources.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set between Series 2 and Series 3.
> 
> Spoilers for episodes 2.06 and 2.07.

  
The light spilled out of the office at the top of the ramp, drawing Nick’s eyes upwards as he crossed the atrium on his way out of the ARC.  
  
He paused for moment, undecided whether to continue or investigate. Then he sighed minutely, and directed his feet up the ramp, his footsteps echoing hollowly on the metal flooring.  
  
“It’s late,” he said, with nothing more than a short knock on the glass door to announce his presence.  
  
“Yes, thank you, Cutter, I’m perfectly aware of the time.” Lester didn’t look up, a clearly dismissive gesture that Nick ignored.  
  
“No one else is here,” he pointed out.  
  
“You are.” Lester’s eyes remained firmly fixed on the document in front of him.  
  
“I’m just leaving. It’s late,” Nick repeated, perhaps a trifle unnecessarily.  
  
“Don’t let the door catch your heels on the way out.”  
  
Nick hesitated, unsure why he was even bothering, then sighed again to himself and ploughed on.  
  
“The paperwork will still be there tomorrow, you know.”  
  
“Yes, and tomorrow it will have been joined by an entirely new pile, and I will have twice as much to do.”  
  
“Can’t Lorraine do some of it?”  
  
“Unfortunately, Miss Wickes is not qualified to sign off on _classified_ documents,” Lester replied acidly. “Professor, I realise your attitude to paperwork is slapdash at best, but some of us like to do our jobs _properly_.”  
  
“But it’s…”  
  
“Late. Yes, I know. You have kindly pointed this fact out twice already. Now, while I am touched, and I may say, slightly baffled, by your concern, the longer you distract me the later it will be before I am done.” Lester’s tone suggested he was rather more baffled than touched, and Nick couldn’t help but feel a little confused himself by the situation.  
  
But it was clearly no use. He watched Lester for a moment longer, and then gave in. “Fine, I’ll leave you to it. See you in the morning.”  
  
“Thank you, Cutter. _Good-night_.”  
  
The same thing happened the next night. Nick was leaving the ARC late, only to notice that once again he wasn’t the last one there. But this time he cast no more than a glance up at Lester’s office before going on his way. No doubt the man _did_ have a lot of paperwork to get through, and if that was the way he chose to live his life, Nick wasn’t going to interfere.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
With a cry, Nick opened his eyes. His heart was racing and his breath was coming in short, jerky gasps. He could feel the clamminess of the sweat on his skin, and the restrictiveness of the duvet that was tangled round his legs.  
  
But the images of blood and death were already fading, melting away to leave only the grief that he seemed to be permanently carrying around with him like a lead weight round his neck.  
  
Ordinarily, he couldn’t really remember much about that day. Oh, he could remember talking with Leek, and Helen. He could remember facing off with the future predator, and Oliver’s howls as he was consumed by his ‘praetorian guard’.  
  
But the important bit, the final bit, that was just a collection of random flashes, some words and images that didn’t quite meld into a whole.  
  
He didn’t know if it was his subconscious protecting him, or if that really was all there was to remember. But he _did_ know that he felt vaguely guilty about not being able to recall more, no matter how much he was grateful that he _couldn’t_.  
  
At night, however, his subconscious seemed to take a break. That was when the memories surfaced, in full technicolour and surround-sound. He remembered vividly going down after Stephen had hit him, the moment of realisation as he scrambled to his feet, the clang of the door as it shut irrevocably.  
  
And he remembered looking through that small window as Stephen backed away. Yelling and begging and pleading for his friend to come back. Watching as he…  
  
But that was when he always woke up. And as soon as he opened his eyes the memories began to sink back into the recesses of his mind, leaving him once again with only guilt and grief for company.  
  
 _This_ was why he worked so late. He’d not had one unbroken night’s sleep since Stephen’s death, and even though he couldn’t really remember the nightmares, he was afraid of them. Afraid that if he had them enough he’d start to remember properly. All the time.  
  
And he thought that might drive him mad.  
  
So he worked. It was a cliché, but it _did_ help him forget. And it tired him out. He still hoped that if he were exhausted enough, the nightmares wouldn’t come. It hadn’t worked yet, but he was willing to give it a little more time.  
  
Nick realised he was still awake, still staring at his bedroom ceiling. The greyness of the room told him that the deepest hours of the night were past. He rolled over to look at the clock. 5.25. Nearly morning, but still less than four hours since he’d gone to bed.  
  
But he wasn’t going back to sleep. He could feel the tiredness creeping around the edges of his awareness, but he was now definitely awake.  
  
He lay there for a couple more minutes, and then came to a decision. If he wasn’t going to sleep, he could at least do something useful.  
  
A dash of cold water in the face and a mug of industrial strength coffee scattered the last remnants of his exhaustion, and fifteen minutes after he’d rolled out of bed he was on his way to the ARC.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
The first person Nick saw when he arrived was the guard on duty at the entrance. While his ID was examined Nick struggled to remember the man’s name. Security had increased noticeably since the incident with Leek and Helen (Nick tried not to think of it in any other way), and there were now quite a few unfamiliar faces around the ARC. There was even a rumour that Lester was hiring some new military backup for the field team, although so far none had appeared.  
  
“Well, that seems to be in order, Professor,” said the guard, handing Nick’s ID card back.  
  
“Thank you, er…”  
  
“Banks, sir. Aaron Banks.”  
  
“Well, thank you, Banks. Can I go in now?”  
  
“Of course, Professor.” The guard watched as Nick tucked his ID back in his wallet. “I’m sorry about this, sir. Lester’s orders. No one gets in without identification.”  
  
Nick smiled ruefully. “Although I bet Lester’s carefully made himself exempt from that rule, hasn’t he?”  
  
Banks smiled back. “Actually, he hasn’t. Although that doesn’t stop him grumbling every time the person on duty takes extra special care to check his photograph.”  
  
The two men shared a quick chuckle. Then Banks looked around surreptitiously.  
  
“Not that he’ll be needing ID to get in today,” he said.  
  
“Oh?”  
  
“He never left last night. As far as I know he’s still up in his office.”  
  
Nick’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He’d known Lester was dedicated to his work, but he didn’t think the man was _that_ committed. “And here I was thinking I’d be first in this morning,” he said lightly. “So much for racking up some brownie points with the boss.”  
  
Banks shrugged, and then waved Nick through the security gate. “Have a good day, Professor.”  
  
Nick nodded, and then headed off in the direction of his lab. The ARC was as eerily quiet at this time of the morning as it was late at night, and there was no one else to be seen. Perfect conditions for getting some work done without the interruptions that ordinarily plagued him during the day.  
  
In fact, he suspected that people were dropping in to his office or lab more often than usual in order to check up on him. He knew he should be grateful that they were looking out for him, but in truth their concern was starting to grate a little. He just wanted to be left alone to get on with things.  
  
Which was why Nick had decided to come to the ARC so early, and take advantage of the quiet hours before everyone else arrived. That way he could be alone with himself without having to wear the mask that everyone else expected to see.  
  
But when he reached his lab he stopped before going in. Hovering in the corridor for a few moments, he then made an abrupt decision. Leaving the lab behind, he walked off towards Lester’s office.  
  
The sight that greeted him when he got there was much like what he’d seen when he’d been up there a few nights previously. Lester was sitting behind his desk, surrounded by paperwork. But there was one difference. This time, instead of reading the document in front of him, Lester was sleeping on it. His head was resting partly on his arm, and partly on the paper, his other arm resting on the desk by his face, hand still grasping his pen.  
  
Nick wondered if he should clear his throat or something. However, as it turned out, there wasn’t time. Something about his presence must have put Lester’s senses on alert, because suddenly the man stirred, lifting his head groggily as he looked about himself in a somewhat confused manner.  
  
“Sorry for waking you,” Nick said, trying, and entirely failing, to keep a smirk off his face. “I didn’t realise the ARC was branching out into the hotel business.”  
  
“Ha ha, very funny, Cutter,” replied Lester sourly. He shot a glare at Nick, and the professor almost flinched. Not because of the annoyance in Lester’s eyes, but because of the man’s appearance.  
  
Lester looked wrecked. Okay, so no one looked their best after sleeping at their desk (Nick had more than enough experience of that occurrence), but this was more than that. Lester’s eyes were bloodshot, and the dark circles under them stood out starkly against the paleness of the rest of his skin.  
  
He looked, in short, about as bad as Nick felt. And that was pretty damn bad.  
  
“What the hell’s happened to you?” Nick asked, with tactless but genuine concern. “You look terrible.”  
  
Lester fixed him with another glare. “How kind of you to say so,” he muttered. “I believe we’ve had this discussion once already this week, professor. I have a lot of work on at the moment, and I’m putting in some extra hours to deal with it. That is all.”  
  
Nick narrowed his eyes. That quite clearly _wasn’t_ all, but it was equally clear that Lester wasn’t going to say anything else.  
  
“It’s still early,” he offered. “I’m sure you’ve got time to go home and get showered and changed before everyone else arrives.”  
  
“Once again, your concern is appreciated. However, there is nothing wrong with me that a strong cup of coffee won’t put right.” Lester stood up and walked towards Nick. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, it is early, as you say. And since that means Miss Wickes isn’t here yet, I shall have to fetch the beverage myself.”  
  
Nick stood aside as Lester exited the office, and then watched as the man disappeared through the door that led in the direction of the rec room.  
  
Something was wrong here, and it wasn’t just an excess of paperwork. Lester looked like a man who’d spent more than one night asleep at his desk, and Nick couldn’t help wondering why.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Over the next week Nick watched Lester closely. He wasn’t sure why he was doing it – the man had certainly never done anything for _him_. But even though he didn’t know exactly what was wrong with Lester, he couldn’t help but be sympathetic to the civil servant’s plight. Lester was obviously struggling mentally, and Nick knew what that felt like.  
  
Lester’s appearance didn’t improve as the days went by. Nick didn’t know how many nights Lester was spending at the ARC, but by the looks of it, it was all of them. He was still neatly and immaculately attired, with his tailored suits and slicked back hair, but the bags under his eyes were only deepening, and he seemed to be surrounded by an aura of utter exhaustion all the time.  
  
However, no one else seemed to have noticed anything amiss, and Nick wondered if it was just because he was living on the ragged edge himself that he realised quite how close to it Lester was as well.  
  
Or perhaps the others just didn’t _want_ to notice. Nick himself received plenty of sympathy from his friends and colleagues – more than he wanted, sometimes. Connor and Abby frequently tried to cheer him up, and he’d had more than one uncomfortable chat with Jenny, where she’d tried to convince him that Stephen’s death wasn’t his fault.  
  
But Lester wasn’t the most popular person at the ARC, and for the most part people tried to spend as little time around him as possible. And if any of them had noticed his condition, it was entirely plausible that they were ignoring it on purpose – not in a deliberately malicious way, but just because it was Lester, and he wasn’t really one of them. Nick had never really considered how isolating that must be, and now he’d noticed it he felt vaguely guilty about the situation.  
  
He didn’t try to approach Lester again, and he wasn’t sure if the other man had noticed his observation – although if he had, he wasn’t acknowledging it. Which left Nick in the uncertain position of not knowing quite what to do. The irony of feeling sorry for Lester was not lost on him, and the man clearly wouldn’t welcome his interference.  
  
So he was left just watching, and wondering how long the situation could go on for.  
  
As it turned out, not long.  
  
After another week of apparently not getting enough sleep to satisfy a flea, Lester’s mood started to deteriorate. He’d never been the best tempered of men, obviously feeling that politeness was a waste of time when sarcasm could be employed instead.  
  
But now he was snapping at everyone. Nothing could satisfy him, and one of the lab technicians had even been seen to leave his office in tears. Lester had always been caustic, but now he was being downright cruel. And people were finally starting to notice.  
  
Things finally reached breaking point three days later. A second technician had actually resigned after a completely unwarranted drubbing down from Lester, prompting Jenny to call a secret council of war.  
  
“Something’s the matter with Lester,” she said bluntly, looking round at Nick, Connor, Abby, and Lorraine Wickes, who’d been invited along as the person who spent the most time around their boss.  
  
“You’re telling me,” Connor muttered. “He totally lost it yesterday when I told him the detector upgrades would take an hour longer than I predicted.”  
  
“Normally I’d say that’s just Lester,” Jenny continued. “But this is getting out of hand.”  
  
“He looks awful as well,” put in Abby. “Completely exhausted.”  
  
“Does anyone know anything about this?”  
  
There was silence for a couple of seconds, then Nick sighed. “He’s been sleeping in his office,” he admitted. “I don’t know how often, but he’s here later than _I_ am every single night, and sometimes I think he just doesn’t go home.”  
  
Lorraine looked faintly upset. Normally she knew how to handle Lester, but even she had been catching the sharper end of his tongue in recent days. “How can I not have noticed this?” she asked.  
  
“You’re his secretary, not his keeper,” Jenny told her. “Your responsibility is his filing, not his welfare.”  
  
“And he’s been doing a good job of keeping it hidden until recently,” Nick added. “I’ve only noticed because I’ve been watching.”  
  
“You’ve been watching him?” Abby looked faintly incredulous. “Why?”  
  
Nick shrugged. “I’m not sure really. But whatever he’s going through at the moment, he’s not the only one suffering. I suppose I feel sorry for him.”  
  
The silence this time was awkward. Then Jenny cleared her throat.  
  
“But does anyone know what the problem actually _is_?” she asked. “Nick?”  
  
“No.” Nick shook his head. “Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t want to talk about it. But he’s definitely got something on his mind.”  
  
“That’s for sure,” said Connor.  
  
“Well, the first thing we need to do is make sure he gets a good night’s sleep,” said Jenny briskly. “Lorraine, any ideas?”  
  
Lorraine thought for a moment, and then smiled slightly. “Maybe one,” she replied. “I think the simple approach might be best.”  
  
“Tell me as we walk,” Jenny said, standing up.  
  
When the two women had left the room, Nick, Connor, and Abby looked at each other.  
  
“Us helping out Lester – who’d have thought it,” said Connor. Abby gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs, and he subsided, muttering.  
  
But Nick was slightly distracted. They might be able to get Lester home, so he could sleep in his own bed instead of slumped over his desk for once, but he had a feeling that it was going to be a lot harder than that to find out what was bothering their boss.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Lorraine’s plan turned out to be as simple as she’d said. The next time Lester left his office, she and Jenny planted themselves in the doorway, and when he returned refused to let him back in. From their position in the atrium below, Nick, Connor, and Abby heard the altercation as it progressed.  
  
“Don’t tell me, you’re protesting about having to share the locker room with the men again.”  
  
“Not a bit of it, James.” That was Jenny. “We’re worried about you, and want to help.”  
  
Lester snorted. “Well, that’s very sweet of you, I’m sure, but there’s really nothing to worry about. Now, if you’d just get out of my way.”  
  
“You look very tired, sir,” said Lorraine. “Are you sure you oughtn’t to go home? It’s past seven o’clock, and I’m sure some relaxation would do you good.” Her tone was pointed, but Lester ignored it.  
  
“I don’t think it’s your place to tell me what I ought and ought not to do, Miss Wickes,” he said sharply. “Or to tell me what would do me good. Now, please let me pass.”  
  
“No can do, James,” said Jenny. “You need to get out of here and get some sleep. For _our_ benefit as well as your own. I think the laboratory technicians are planning your murder as we speak. You need rest, James.”  
  
“Last time I looked I was in charge here.”  
  
“Call it relieving you of your command on medical grounds,” replied Jenny reasonably.  
  
“You’re not qualified to make that assessment.”  
  
“I’m sure we can get one of the medical staff up here, if you’d like a second opinion, sir,” said Lorraine.  
  
There was a few seconds silence, and then Lester sighed. “Fine,” he retorted. “As you seem to be immoveable on the subject, I suppose I’ll have to acquiesce on this occasion. But would it be too much to ask for my briefcase? Or are you going to start holding my possessions hostage as well?”  
  
“I’ll get it for you, sir.”  
  
After another moment or two, Lester appeared at the top of the ramp, holding his briefcase and looking very annoyed. Nick, Connor, and Abby watched, a trifle apprehensively, as the civil servant made his way down to their level and walked towards them.  
  
“I suppose you had a hand in this?” he said, addressing all three of them, but singling Nick out with his eyes.  
  
Connor and Abby cleared their throats and shuffled their feet guiltily, but Nick returned Lester’s glare with an unconcerned look until the other man huffed angrily and turned away.  
  
“Mark my words, people, there will be _consequences_ from this,” Lester said loudly. “Don’t think you’ve got away with it.”  
  
He exited in the direction of the car park, and the five people watching his departure breathed a collective sigh of relief.  
  
Nick looked up at Jenny and Lorraine. “That was easier than I expected,” he observed.  
  
“There must really be something wrong with him,” said Connor. “Or else he wouldn’t have given in like that.”  
  
Jenny raised her eyebrows, but she looked as worried as Nick felt. If their boss was cracking up, what hope did the rest of them have?  
  
“Well, I think I’d better be making tracks as well,” Abby said suddenly. “Connor, are you coming?”  
  
“Yep, just give me a minute…”  
  
“Professor, how about a drink? Jenny and Lorraine could come too. We could all do with a bit of relaxation, I think.”  
  
“No – thanks, Abby, but I’ve got some work I need to finish.”  
  
“Now who’s working too hard?” joked Connor. “Don’t say we’re going to have to pull an intervention on you next!”  
  
“Yes, Nick, let’s all go out for a drink,” Jenny coaxed. “Lester’s not the only one who’s been putting in insane hours lately.” She gave him a pointed look. “We _have_ noticed, you know.”  
  
“We all miss Stephen,” said Abby quietly. “But cutting yourself off and trying to forget isn’t going to help. Come out, have some fun. Please?”  
  
“But I…”  
  
The debate was interrupted by the double doors swinging open to admit the security guard, Aaron Banks.  
  
“Professor! Miss Lewis!”  
  
“Yes, what is it?” Jenny started down the ramp, alerted by Banks’ somewhat perturbed air.  
  
“It’s Lester, Miss Lewis.”  
  
“What’s happened?” asked Nick urgently.  
  
“He’s crashed his car.”


	2. Chapter 2

Lester was standing by his car when they reached the ARC’s underground car park. He looked even more annoyed than he had when he’d left the atrium, but was apparently unhurt.  
  
Sadly, the same could not be said of his Lexus. The car’s rear end had obviously impacted a concrete pillar with some force, causing significant damage to the bodywork and undercarriage. The end of the exhaust pipe was dangling forlornly only a few inches off the floor, and the boot no longer appeared to close properly. It was clear that extensive repair work would be needed.  
  
“James, are you okay?” Jenny asked, hurrying towards him, closely followed by Lorraine.  
  
“As you can see, I’m perfectly fine,” Lester snapped. “Really, this is a lot of fuss over nothing. The car took most of the impact.”  
  
“But are you sure you’re all right, sir?” said Lorraine. “Should I call an ambulance?”  
  
“No, you should not. I don’t need one.”  
  
“Are you sure? You might feel okay, but you should get checked out.” Nick came up behind Jenny, with Aaron Banks in tow. Connor and Abby had gone to inspect the damage to the car more closely, and he could already hear Connor’s exclamations at the damage.  
  
Lester fixed him with a glare reminiscent of the one he had given Nick earlier in the atrium. “I repeat, I am _perfectly fine_. I do _not_ need to go anywhere near a hospital.”  
  
“What happened?” Nick asked quietly, feeling that he knew the answer, but wanting to see if Lester would admit it.  
  
Unsurprisingly, he didn’t. “I had something on my mind – namely, the _mutiny_ of my employees – and let my attention wander for a moment. I pressed the accelerator a little harder than I intended, that’s all.”  
  
“Wow, you must have practically stamped on it,” said Connor, appearing suddenly from behind the car. “That’s no minor dent you’ve got back there.”  
  
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Temple,” Lester said. “Rest assured that any time I need an opinion about my car, I _won’t_ be coming to you.” He looked at Jenny, Lorraine, and Nick. “Now, as I assume that you all still want me to go home, perhaps someone could call me a taxi. Since it’s obvious I won’t be driving myself tonight.”  
  
“Yes, of course, sir. I’ll do it right away.” Lorraine made a move towards the car park exit.  
  
“There’s no need for that,” said Nick suddenly. “I’ll drive you home.”  
  
Connor’s loud, “What?” mirrored almost exactly Nick’s own mental reaction to his impulsive offer, but it was too late to take it back. Even if Abby and Jenny were looking at him like he’d grown another head, and Lester’s expression said he could think of several things he’d rather do than get in a car with Nick Cutter.  
  
“Thank you, Professor, but there’s no need for that. A taxi will suffice.”  
  
“No, really, it’s fine. It’s time I left anyway. And besides, think of the ARC’s budget. You’ll be saving money this way.” He offered Lester a weak smile, but Lester didn’t return it.  
  
Instead the civil servant sighed. “Very well. Since you’ve so kindly offered, I suppose it would be churlish of me to refuse.”  
  
“Oh, good.” Nick hesitated, and then gestured across the car park. “My truck is this way.”  
  
Lester’s expression soured further at the word ‘truck’, but he nonetheless started to follow Nick across the car park.  
  
“Don’t worry about your car, James,” Jenny called after them. “Lorraine and I will deal with it.”  
  
When there was no response from Lester, Nick turned slightly and waved back at her. “Thanks,” he called back. “See you tomorrow.”  
  
Lester remained silent as they passed the rest of the ARC’s vehicles to where Nick’s truck was parked in a corner. He ignored Nick’s offer of help to clamber into the truck, instead placing his briefcase in first and then climbing into the passenger seat surprisingly gracefully.  
  
Nick stifled a sigh as he hefted himself in on the other side. It looked like it was going to be a quiet drive.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
It took Lester twenty minutes to notice, with a lack of observation that was surprising for him. Or perhaps not, considering the circumstances.  
  
“This isn’t the way to my flat,” the civil servant commented eventually, his tone clipped.  
  
“No, it isn’t,” Nick agreed.  
  
“Then where are we going? I thought you and your co-conspirators were adamant I went home.”  
  
“We’re going to my house instead.”  
  
Nick had been doing some swift thinking since they’d left the ARC. He’d surprised himself (and everyone else) with his offer to drive Lester home, but now he’d had a chance to consider it he’d decided he might as well take the opportunity it had offered him.  
  
He hadn’t bought Lester’s story about his attention wandering for a moment. Or, at least, he hadn’t bought the _reasons_ for the slip. It was obvious that Lester was hanging on by a thread, and although he’d rebuffed all previous attempts to help him, Nick was hoping that, away from the ARC, he could get the man to admit what was bothering him.  
  
He knew what hanging by a thread felt like, after all.  
  
“And why exactly are we going to your house instead of mine?” Lester’s tone was frosty now, but Nick wasn’t intimidated.  
  
“Because I don’t trust you alone in your flat,” he said bluntly. He glanced across at the briefcase lying on Lester’s lap. “How much paperwork have you got in there?” he asked conversationally. “Enough to keep you going for a whole night?”  
  
Lester said nothing.  
  
“Don’t think I haven’t seen through your plan,” Nick continued. “We might have forced you out of the ARC, but once you’re alone there’ll be no one around to force you to sleep.”  
  
More silence.  
  
“So I’m taking you to my place where I can keep an eye on you,” Nick finished.  
  
That was the other part of his plan. It had taken Nick a while to get used to the idea of being worried about Lester, but he’d found that he sincerely wanted to help the man. And perhaps by helping Lester he could help himself too.  
  
Lester didn’t say another word for the rest of the journey, and Nick wondered if he was going to have to force the other man to get out of the car when they reached the house. But when he’d parked on the driveway Lester surprised him by sliding out of the car only slightly less gracefully than he’d got in, and walking up the path and through the front door under his own steam, standing silently in the hallway while Nick locked the door and hung up his coat.  
  
Unsurprisingly, Lester looked a little out of place in this environment. Nick’s house wasn’t as messy as his offices invariably seemed to end up, but neither was it as immaculate as Nick suspected Lester’s flat was.  
  
“Why don’t you come through?” Nick said awkwardly. “I’ll get us a drink. You could probably do with one.”  
  
Lester didn’t move. “This is tantamount to kidnapping, you know,” he said. “I’ve been brought here against my will.”  
  
Nick gestured past him. “There’s the door,” he replied. “And I’m sure if you phone directory enquiries they can put you in touch with a taxi firm.” He held his breath, waiting.  
  
But Lester still didn’t move, and there were a few awkwardly quiet moments. Then, “I believe you said something about a drink, Professor?”  
  
Nick breathed out, and nodded. “Of course. Come in and sit down.”  
  
He led the way to the living room, and then busied himself pouring out two glasses of scotch while Lester took his jacket off, folded it neatly, and draped it over the back of the sofa. Then he sat down, placing his briefcase on the floor beside him.  
  
He still wasn’t saying much, and Nick handed over the glass mutely. Lester tossed the drink off in one gulp and then put the glass on the coffee table. Nick raised his eyebrows and sipped his own drink more slowly.  
  
“Do you mind if I watch the news?” Lester asked abruptly.  
  
“Not at all.” Nick passed him the remote, the television flickering to life just as the ten o’clock bongs were chiming.  
  
They were quiet until the news ended, and a trailer for the latest crime drama series came on to the screen.  
  
“Are you hungry?” said Nick. “I’m afraid my cooking skills aren’t up to much, but I could order some takeout.”  
  
“No, thank you.”  
  
“Look, I’m sorry about this, but…”  
  
“I think I’d like to go to bed.” Lester looked at Nick properly for the first time since they’d left the ARC. “That was the idea of bringing me here, wasn’t it? To make sure I got some sleep?”  
  
“What? Oh, yes. Okay, that’s fine. Let me show you the spare room, and find something for you to sleep in, and you’ll be all set.”  
  
Lester followed him upstairs, and waited in the spare room while Nick dug out an old t-shirt and pair of shorts. He’d expected Lester to turn his nose up at them, but the other man accepted them readily enough. Nick hovered, unsure what to do next, until Lester turned an annoyed glance on him.  
  
“Are you going to watch me undress, Cutter? Perhaps you’re going to stand vigil at the foot of the bed and make sure I really do go to sleep?”  
  
“Oh, sorry. Of course not.” Nick headed quickly for the door, turning on the threshold to look back at Lester. “If you need anything, please ask. I’m just across the…”  
  
Lester shut the door in his face. Nick stared at it dumbly for a full five seconds before shaking his head ruefully and going to his own room.  
  
 _Well, this is going well._  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Blinking in the darkness, Nick wondered what had woken him. For once there were no vestiges of a nightmare fading at the back of his mind, and he was at a loss to work out why he should be awake now.  
  
Then he heard it. A sharp cry, a yelp of fear. Nick had left his bedroom door open a fraction in case Lester should change his mind and need something, and it was quite obvious where the noise had come from.  
  
Rising swiftly from his bed, Nick went out of his room and crossed the landing, turning on the lights as he went. The spare room door was also ajar, and Nick wondered why Lester had opened it again. The sound had carried well in the quiet house, and as he hesitated momentarily, Nick heard it again. That decided him, and he pushed at the door gently.  
  
Light spilled into the room ahead of him, casting his shadow across the carpet. “Lester?”  
  
The only response was another frightened gasp, and Nick stepped closer to the bed. Lester wasn’t thrashing around, but his panic was clear on his face, and his hands were scrabbling uselessly at the bedclothes. Leaning over him, Nick debated whether to grasp his shoulder, to try and shake him free of the nightmare. But he didn’t know whether that would make things worse, so he settled for saying Lester’s name again, louder this time.  
  
“Lester! Wake up…it’s okay, just wake up. Lester…Lester! James!”  
  
Lester lashed out suddenly, and Nick jerked backwards just in time to avoid being hit. When he looked down again, he could see that Lester was awake.  
  
“You were having a nightmare,” he said, unnecessarily since he could still see the traces of fear clearly on Lester’s face, and hear the rapid rhythm of his breathing. “It’s okay.”  
  
For a moment Lester didn’t do anything, and then suddenly he was scrambling out of bed, pushing past Nick and disappearing out on to the landing.  
  
For an absurd moment Nick wondered if Lester was running away, if he was going to vanish into the night wearing nothing but some borrowed nightclothes. He dashed after the other man as he heard footsteps rapidly descending the stairs, and followed just in time to see Lester ducking into the kitchen.  
  
Relieved that the civil servant hadn’t done a bunk, Nick hesitated in the hall, knowing from his own experiences that it took some time to gather oneself after a nightmare. Then he proceeded into the kitchen.  
  
Lester hadn’t switched on any lights, and with the room being at the back of the house there were no streetlamps outside the window to provide any illumination. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Nick could make out Lester standing by the sink, with his back to him. He was gulping down a glass of water, and Nick waited until he’d finished before asking softly, “Is it okay if I turn on a light?”  
  
He took the lack of answer as an assent, and switched on the lamp standing on the corner cabinet by the kitchen table. Lester flinched as the room suddenly became brighter, but didn’t say anything, instead filling and draining another glass of water.  
  
Nick sat down at the table, not knowing what else to do. Asking, “Do you want to talk about it?” was so clichéd, and anyway, he was certain that Lester _wouldn’t_ want to talk about it. But he couldn’t just leave the man on his own.  
  
Thus he was somewhat surprised when Lester spoke. He didn’t turn, so the words were said to the darkened garden beyond the kitchen, but he _did_ speak.  
  
“You’re not the only one who has nightmares, you know.”  
  
 _Well, that much is obvious_ , Nick thought. Then, “How do you know I have nightmares?” he asked.  
  
Now Lester did turn, looking straight at Nick with hard eyes. “Your best friend was ripped to shreds in front of you and you think it’s your fault,” he said bluntly. “How could you not have nightmares?”  
  
For a second Nick couldn’t speak, as an image of Stephen inside that room floated in front of his eyes. He heard himself begging, pleading for Stephen to unlock the door, even though he knew it was hopeless.  
  
He took a deep, shaky breath, blinking to dispel the vision before looking at Lester again. “You’re right,” he said. “I do have nightmares.”  
  
Lester nodded. “And that’s why you work so late. You’re afraid to go to sleep.” The expression in the other man’s eyes was softer now, almost sympathetic. “Snap,” he said wryly.  
  
“But what do you have to have nightmares about?”  
  
“You forget that you and Hart and the others weren’t the only ones to suffer at the hands of Leek and your wife.”  
  
 _Of course. The future predator._  
  
“That wasn’t Helen’s fault,” Nick said automatically. “That was Leek’s idea.”  
  
Lester gave him a disgusted look. “Still defending her, Professor? Even after everything?”  
  
“No, it’s just…” Nick hesitated, then bowed his head slightly. “You’re right. She wasn’t blameless. She’s _never_ been blameless.” He looked up again. “So you have nightmares…about that day?” he said slowly.  
  
“About being stalked down empty corridors by one of the most dangerous creatures the world has ever seen? Yes, I have nightmares about it.”  
  
Lester moved away from the sink and sat down opposite Nick, at the other end of the table. “I have nightmares about it,” he repeated. “Nightmares bad enough to make me do anything to stay awake. It never works, of course. I always fall asleep eventually. But it seems the tireder I am, the less likely I am to dream. Or, at least, the less likely I am to remember it in the morning.”  
  
Nick shifted awkwardly in his chair. Confessions of weakness weren’t customary from Lester. He’d wanted to help the man, wanted to find out what was bothering him, but now had he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the situation.  
  
Lester smiled slightly. “Now do you see why I was so resistant to your little coup earlier?” he said.  
  
“I’m…sorry about that,” replied Nick. “If we’d have known…”  
  
“You were trying to help,” Lester allowed. “And I suppose if I wasn’t so sleep-deprived I would have been better disposed to accept the sentiment, even if I didn’t want to accept the actions.”  
  
“Really?” Nick raised an eyebrow.  
  
“Well, maybe not. I’m a very solitary man, Cutter. You may have noticed that I don’t play well with others. I prefer to be independent. I don’t like relying on people.”  
  
The word ‘solitary’ brought a question to Nick’s mind. “Why the ARC?” he asked.  
  
Lester looked confused, and Nick hurried to elaborate. “If you’re so determined to avoid sleeping, and avoid the nightmares, why stay at the ARC, where it all happened? I wouldn’t have thought that would help at all.”  
  
“Strange, isn’t it?” Lester replied. “I’m not sure I can really tell you myself. Except that I suppose it’s a familiar place, that’s all. I spend far more time there than I do in my home, and that office of mine has become something of a sanctuary to me. Somewhere I feel in control. And besides,” he added, “I refuse to let that despicable little man win. I refuse to let him carry on frightening me from beyond the grave.” Lester sighed. “Now, if only I could get my subconscious mind to accept that too.”  
  
There was silence for a few moments while the two men looked at each other, understanding flowing between them for once. Then Lester stood abruptly.  
  
“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go back to bed now. It is the middle of the night, after all.”  
  
“Are you sure? Don’t feel you have to…”  
  
“It’s time I faced this,” responded Lester firmly. “Perhaps you and your erstwhile colleagues have actually done me a favour, Professor. I couldn’t have gone on like I was.”  
  
Knowing this was as close to a ‘thank you’ as he was likely to get, Nick smiled and stood up too. “Okay, good-night. And sweet dreams.”  
  
“I think I’d rather have no dreams at all,” said Lester. “But I take your point.”   
  
He nodded to Nick, and then left the room quickly. Nick lingered for a few moments, considering what had just happened. That was more of Lester than he’d ever expected to be privy to, and he was a little surprised to have seen so much of the man under the suit. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure that this whole episode hadn’t been a dream itself.  
  
Shaking his head at his fancifulness, Nick switched off the lamp, and went back to bed himself. No nightmares awaited him.


	3. Chapter 3

The first thing Nick saw when he entered the kitchen the next morning was Lester sitting at the table, with papers spread out in front of him, and a steaming mug of coffee in one hand.  
  
The civil servant looked up as Nick appeared, a defensive expression appearing on his face almost instantly.  
  
“Before you ask, I’ve only been working on this for half an hour. Since I’m now relying on you for a lift to work, and as far as I can remember you’ve never been on time on a single occasion,” Lester looked at his watch ostentatiously, “it seemed prudent to get a head start on a few bit and pieces before we leave.”  
  
Nick held his hands up. “I wasn’t going to say a word,” he protested, fighting not to smile. He looked at his own watch. “And it’s only eight o’clock – there’s still plenty of time to make it to the ARC punctually.”  
  
Lester raised his eyebrows disbelievingly, but said nothing, instead taking a sip of coffee. Nick gave up trying to stop the smile, and grinned at him.  
  
“I see you managed to find some caffeine then?”  
  
“Believe it or not, Cutter, I can find my way around a kitchen. I didn’t get so far in life purely due to my pretty face, you know.” Then Lester pursed his lips. “However, might I suggest that you invest in a better brand in future? I don’t know what this is, but it’s hardly worthy of being called coffee.”  
  
“I’ll have you know that’s Tesco’s finest,” Nick retorted, although he was still smiling.  
  
“And it tastes like it.”  
  
“I thought you wanted to get on with your paperwork,” Nick said, picking up the cafetiere to fill a second mug. Lester had made enough for both of them – a thoughtful gesture that surprised Nick a little. Although he had to admit that a lot of things were surprising him about Lester these days.  
  
“I do.” Lester pulled a piece of paper towards him, but then ignored it, choosing instead to look Nick up and down. “But if we’re going to be punctual, hadn’t you better get dressed, Professor?”  
  
Nick looked down at himself. He was still wearing the t-shirt and jogging bottoms he had slept in, and he suspected his slobbish habits were offending Lester’s sensibilities. He grinned again. “I suppose you’re right. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll be right with you.”  
  
Twenty minutes later (thanks to an unfortunate incident with his shirt and the remains of his coffee), Nick hurried back down the stairs to find that Lester had packed all his papers away, and was waiting for him with a rather annoyed air.  
  
“Sorry, sorry,” Nick exclaimed, noticing in passing that Lester had washed up his mug and the cafetiere. “I’m ready now.”  
  
Lester muttered something that might have been, “About time,” but didn’t comment further. Together they left the house, climbed into Nick’s truck, and headed off to the ARC.  
  
The drive was as quiet as the one the previous night had been, but this time the silence was comfortable rather than awkward. In truth, Nick had expected this morning to be _extremely_ uncomfortable, in light of the confessions they’d both made. He’d expected Lester to retreat into his shell again, to hole up behind his civil servant façade.  
  
But if anything the man seemed to have loosened up a bit. He was certainly more relaxed around Nick than he had ever been before, and Nick began to think that there might be some truth in the maxim that talking things over and clearing the air was good for you.  
  
Nick himself had certainly slept better after their little chat. And he didn’t think Lester had had any more nightmares either. Of course, neither of them had really referred to their heart-to-heart – they were still men, after all, famed for not talking about their feelings if they could possibly avoid it. But things felt…better. Less desperate. Less overwhelming.  
  
He shook his head slightly to himself as he drove. Who would have thought it would be Lester, of all people, that he’d open up to? It had certainly been a surprise. And he suspected that the civil servant was just as nonplussed by the turn events had taken. Even if, as was customary for him, he wasn’t showing it.  
  
They reached the ARC only fifteen minutes late, and Nick parked the truck in his normal space. He could see Lester forbearing to comment on their tardiness, and smiled.  
  
They walked across the car park and up into the ARC still in silence, but when they reached the atrium, Lester stopped and looked at Nick. Then he nodded, once, and walked off towards the ramp. Nick watched him for a moment, and then shrugged and then headed off to his own office.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
The knock at the door dragged Nick’s attention away from his computer. For a moment he wondered if it might be Lester, then told himself not to be so stupid. Despite everything that had happened, it would still be uncharacteristic of the man to come and visit Nick in his office. Lester was having nightmares, not undergoing a complete personality transplant.  
  
“Come in,” he called.  
  
The door opened to admit Jenny, and Nick smiled at her invitingly.  
  
“What can I do for you?”  
  
“I want to talk to you.”  
  
Jenny stepped further into the room, and Nick saw she was carrying a steaming cup, and a sandwich from the vending machine. At the sight of the food, his stomach growled loudly, reminding him that Lester’s impatience had left little time for breakfast that morning, and that dinner the evening before had been something sugary and insubstantial, also from the vending machine, before he’d left the ARC.  
  
Jenny raised her eyebrows at the noise, and then her gaze flicked from Nick to the sandwich in her hand. She sighed.  
  
“When did you last eat anything?”  
  
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don’t want to receive a lecture from you.”  
  
Jenny held out the sandwich, rolling her eyes. “I suppose you’d better have this then. Just so long as you don’t want my coffee too.”  
  
Nick took the sandwich gratefully. “Jenny, you’re a star. And don’t worry, I have my own coffee right here.” He picked up his mug from the desk, took a swig, and made a face. It was stone cold, and now that he thought about it, it must be at least an hour since he’d been to the rec room to make it.  
  
Jenny sighed again, and passed over her own mug. “Here. And don’t say I never do anything for you.”  
  
“You are an angel in human form,” Nick told her, taking a sip of the _hot_ coffee, and then unwrapping the sandwich. He was halfway through it before he noticed that Jenny had sat down on the opposite side of the desk, and was watching him with poorly disguised amusement.  
  
“Oh, sorry, I…”  
  
She waved him away. “It’s fine.” Her expression softened. “You need to take better care of yourself, Nick.”  
  
“I’m fine…”  
  
“No, you’re not,” Jenny said firmly. There was a few seconds of silence, and then she cleared her throat. “But actually, I didn’t come here to talk about you,” she continued. “I wanted to ask you about Lester. What happened when you took him back to his place last night?”  
  
Nick swallowed the last bite of sandwich, and took another mouthful of coffee. “Well, to start with, I didn’t take him back to his place, I took him back to mine.”  
  
“What?” Jenny’s surprise was almost comical, and Nick felt himself grow defensive.  
  
“I thought he needed someone to keep an eye on him, okay? And I was fairly sure he wasn’t going to let me stay in his flat, so we went back to my house instead.”  
  
“And what did Lester think about that?”  
  
“He accused me of kidnapping him.”  
  
Jenny laughed. “I bet he did!”  
  
“I called his bluff, told him could leave if he liked.”  
  
“But he stayed,” Jenny guessed.  
  
“Yes,” Nick confirmed.  
  
“And…?”  
  
“And I don’t think it’s my place to tell you about it. It’s his business. Suffice to say, we talked…eventually. I think – I _hope_ – it helped.”  
  
“Well, you do seem more cheerful this morning.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“I mean, I don’t think Lester was the only one this ‘talk’ helped,” said Jenny. She smiled. “Who would have thought – Nick Cutter and James Lester opening up to each other!”  
  
Nick smiled back ruefully. “I’ve had a couple of similar thoughts myself,” he admitted. “It is a bit of a turn up for the books, isn’t it?”  
  
“Anyway, you’re not the only one who’s more cheerful this morning,” Jenny informed him. “Although, actually, I’m not sure ‘cheerful’ is the word I’d use to describe Lester. He hasn’t made any more technicians cry, at any rate. That’s got to be a good thing.”  
  
“Has he apologised to the one from yesterday?”  
  
“I’m not sure James Lester has uttered the word ‘sorry’ in his entire life,” replied Jenny. “But he did call a meeting with the R & D team this morning, and told them they were getting a bigger budget. That seemed to clear the air a little.”  
  
“Why do I suspect the techs are far happier with that than an apology? Does Connor know about this?”  
  
“He was in the meeting. He was practically floating on air when he came out. I have to say I’m a little worried about the sort of things he could invent with that kind of money behind him.”  
  
They shared a grin at the thought of the irrepressible young man on their team, and then Jenny stood up.  
  
“I’m glad things worked out last night,” she said. “And I’m even gladder that we’re not all going to get fired for our mutinous behaviour.” She gave Nick a look, her eyes twinkling. “Perhaps you and James should talk to each other more often. You seem to be good for each other.”  
  
“Next you’ll be telling me we should be having boy’s nights out, and watching the footie together. I can’t see it happening.”  
  
“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Jenny replied. She paused in the act of opening the door, and looked back at Nick. “You know what they say about opposites attracting. Just think about it.”  
  
She was gone before Nick had a chance to think up a reply, and for a few seconds he just gaped after her. Him and Lester? It was ridiculous. They might understand each other a little better now, but Nick sincerely doubted it would ever be anything more than that.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
The rest of that week was extremely busy, mainly thanks to three difficult and dangerous anomalies in quick succession. The last one was particularly bad, opening near the campsite of a Duke of Edinburgh group and disgorging a herd of bad-tempered ankylosaurs that, while they weren’t actually attempting to eat anyone, injured three of the kids badly enough that they had to be rushed to casualty.  
  
Jenny and Lester had been running themselves ragged dealing with the fallout of that particular incident, fielding calls from the press, the parents of the children, and finally, various higher-ups in the government. Those ones seemed have been particularly problematic, and Nick had watched as any good his and Lester’s talk might have done slowly disintegrated. Lester might have a legitimate reason now for his late nights and hard work, but that didn’t stop the effect the stress was having on his state of mind.  
  
Three days later it became clear that all the injured children were out of danger, and the phone calls started to tail off. Jenny was still having a couple of issues with a persistent journalist, but having heard her side of the most recent phone conversation with him, Nick had no doubt that she would manage to put the guy off without too much more trouble. He’d smiled to himself and thanked his lucky stars that he’d never had to be on the receiving end of Jenny’s PR tactics.  
  
It was Lester he was worried about, though. The man looked almost as tired as he had done the previous week. He hadn’t got quite as far as yelling at the technicians yet, but Nick was willing to bet that all the strain was making his nightmares worse, not better.  
  
“…and the anomaly by the campsite has finally closed. Although we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the site, and Jenny has strongly recommended to the regional organiser that they choose a different area for DoE in future.”  
  
Nick had gone to Lester’s office under the pretence of filling him in on the status of the week’s anomalies, although he strongly suspected that Jenny would have already given him that information.  
  
Lester, however, didn’t appear to be listening to him, and when Nick finished talking he just continued to stare at a point somewhere past Nick’s left ear.  
  
“And then of course the aliens invaded and told us that actually the anomalies are their failed attempt at trans-dimensional travel.”  
  
Still no response.  
  
“Lester. Lester!”  
  
Lester blinked, and his gaze snapped to Nick’s face.  
  
“What? Oh, yes, thank you, Cutter. That all seems to be in order. I’ll pass that information on to the Minister.”  
  
“What was the last thing I said?”  
  
“Something about an anomaly to the Triassic, wasn’t it?”  
  
“That was ten minutes ago!”  
  
“Oh, well, I’m sure I can get any further information I need from your reports…”  
  
“You’re knackered,” Nick interrupted him bluntly.  
  
Lester blinked at him again, and then scowled. “How perceptive you are, Cutter. In case you hadn’t noticed, this has been a rather tiring week.”  
  
“You need some rest.”  
  
Lester’s scowl deepened. “Is this the start of another little coup, Professor?”  
  
“No, just a suggestion this time. One that you know you should take.”  
  
The civil servant appeared to be considering whether to tell him to sod off, and Nick jumped in again before he could make up his mind.  
  
“Let’s go out for a drink,” he said impulsively.  
  
He’d succeeded in surprising Lester – something that was notoriously difficult to achieve. The man’s eyebrows had climbed nearly to his hairline, and his face was registering a significant amount of dismay.  
  
“Go for a drink? With you?”  
  
“Why not?” replied Nick, determined to plough ahead with the suggestion. “We could both do with unwinding after the week we’ve had, and I’m sure we’ll both sleep better if we’re relaxed.”  
  
“And you think that having a drink with you will be relaxing, do you?”  
  
“I’m not _that_ hard to get along with, surely?” said Nick, feeling a little nettled.  
  
“Fine. I give in. We’ll go for a drink. Although if any of the others find out about this I’ll make sure they never find your body.”  
  
Nick grinned. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”  
  
Lester stood up and picked up his briefcase. “Don’t push me, Cutter. One drink, and then we’re both going home.”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
“What are you having?”  
  
“Whisky. No ice.”  
  
“Okay. Why don’t you find somewhere to sit and I’ll bring them over.”  
  
Nick had to wait a few minutes at the bar, and when he finally looked around for Lester, he almost didn’t see him – the other man had managed to find the most secluded table in the place, hidden in a corner in a separate annex, away from the rest of the customers.  
  
“Embarrassed to be seen with me?” Nick joked, as he set the drinks down on the table before sliding into his seat.  
  
Lester just gave him a look, and then picked up the glass of whisky, sipping at it primly. Nick himself had a pint in front of him – and it would be his only drink of the night. He’d driven to the bar, since Lester’s car was still being repaired – a muttered rant about the uselessness of mechanics had formed the backdrop to their drive over here.  
  
The venue wasn’t one Nick had been to before. It was closer to Lester’s flat than Nick’s house, and he wondered if Lester was a regular here. But he hadn’t disputed Lester’s choice, even though the bar was a little more sophisticated than the places he normally frequented – he’d sensed that dragging Lester to one of the scruffy pubs he liked _would_ be pushing it too far.  
  
However, now they were here, he wasn’t quite sure how to proceed. The stresses and strains of the week seemed to have set their relationship back to what it had been before their mutual revelations, and Nick was getting the distinct impression that Lester would rather be anywhere but here.  
  
His couple of attempts at small talk rebuffed, Nick let a quiet settle over them. To tell the truth, he was becoming a little annoyed. Lester wasn’t the only one who had had a trying week. And he wasn’t the only one with deeper issues to be dealt with. Nick felt like, as hard he was trying to help, he was getting nothing in return, and it was starting to rankle.  
  
Lester set his empty glass down on the table with a thud, and for a moment Nick thought the other man was simply going to get up and leave. He had stipulated only one drink, after all.  
  
“Another?”  
  
Struggling to hide his surprise, Nick shook his head. “I’d better not,” he said. “Driving, remember?” He gestured to his own glass. “Besides, I’m still working on this one.”  
  
“Oh, yes. Well, do you mind if I do?”  
  
“Not at all.”  
  
Half an hour and two more whiskies later, the silence had become somewhat less tense. Nick wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but he no longer had the sense that Lester was plotting his demise.  
  
As the third whisky went the way of the previous two, Nick looked enquiringly in Lester’s direction. “Do you want another?”  
  
There was a short pause. Then, “I don’t think that would be a very good idea,” replied Lester. “Perhaps it’s time we went home.”  
  
Oh, okay,” said Nick, feeling unaccountably disappointed. _This is Lester_ , he reminded himself. _He’s not one of your drinking buddies_. Not that Nick really had drinking buddies any more. “Come on, I’ll drive you home.”  
  
He stood, and Lester followed suit, bumping the table slightly. Nick raised his eyebrows. “Are you drunk?”  
  
“Certainly not,” Lester retorted. “I merely stumbled, that’s all.”  
  
Nick smiled, but wisely decided to keep silent. He didn’t want to disturb this fragile peace they seem to have constructed.  
  
They were closer to Lester’s flat than Nick had realised, and it only took them five minutes to reach the posh-looking building where the civil servant lived.  
  
“I suppose you’d better come up for a moment, then,” Lester said. “It would be most remiss of me not to even offer you coffee.”  
  
Smiling again at the brisk invitation, Nick nodded and climbed out of the truck, following Lester into the lift and watching the lights on the display as they climbed to the eighth floor of the building.  
  
Once inside Lester’s flat, Nick looked around curiously. It was pretty much exactly what he’d suspected any home of Lester’s would be like – clean lines, cool colours, some obviously expensive furniture, and several pieces of art, both modern and antique.  
  
“Nice place,” he commented.  
  
Lester looked around, as if seeing the flat for the first time. “It’s adequate, I suppose. I really should get a bigger place, now that I’m living here more than I expected to.”  
  
“I know what you mean,” Nick told him. “Sometimes I think I should just move into the ARC and have done with it. I see far more of that place than I do my own house.”  
  
“I’d rather you didn’t, Professor,” said Lester dryly. “Health and safety would have a fit. Now, coffee?”  
  
“If you don’t mind?”  
  
“It’s fine,” replied Lester, sounding almost irritated. “Take a seat, why don’t you?” He gestured to one of the pristine white sofas as he disappeared into the kitchen.  
  
Nick sat, finding the sofa to be a lot more comfortable than it looked. As he settled into the cushions, he felt a wave of tiredness sweep over him. It really had been an exhausting week. Sometimes he didn’t know how they all managed to keep up with the punishing schedule the anomalies dealt out.  
  
Only Lester’s reappearance with the coffee stopped Nick falling asleep right there on the sofa – as it was he started comically when the cup was set in front of him, provoking a wry smile from his companion.  
  
“Perhaps you should just go sleep, Cutter. After all, we both know what a precious commodity true rest is to come by at the moment. Who knows, perhaps this will be one of the good nights?”  
  
Nick looked at him for a moment, then picked up his cup. “That wouldn’t make me a very good guest would it?” he said. “Falling asleep in front of my host.” He looked around the flat again as he drank his coffee. “This is a nice place,” he repeated. “Who decorated it?”  
  
“I did. Why, don’t you think I have the interior design gene?”  
  
“Oh, I thought your wife might have…” Nick trailed off awkwardly. He knew Lester was married – the wedding wing on the man’s finger proved that. Some surreptitious hacking by Connor (that Nick pretended not to know about) had also furnished the team with the name of his wife, and his two kids. But that was as far as their knowledge went, and Nick suddenly realised that he knew barely anything about Lester outside the ARC and the anomaly project.  
  
“My wife has never set foot inside this place,” Lester replied flatly. “In fact, I can’t remember the last time I spent more than ten minutes in her company.”  
  
“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”  
  
“I generally like to keep my personal life and my professional life separate, Cutter.”  
  
“Sorry,” said Nick again. He wondered if he was about to be thrown out. Then he decided that if he was, he might as well carry on asking questions anyway.  
  
“You mentioned your kids before. After, well…after what happened to you. You said they wanted a pet.”  
  
“I did, didn’t I?” Lester closed his eyes briefly, and suddenly Nick felt like he was intruding. But before he could apologise again, Lester continued.  
  
“My children live with their mother. I see them once a month, if I’m lucky. Unfortunately, this has left them rather open to their mother’s influence. I have no doubt that she’s been filling their heads with all sorts of poisonous nonsense about me. Although actually, some of it might even be true… Anyway, it’s got to the point where, when I do see them I have to resort to bribery to keep their attention. And their mother has taught them well how to exploit this situation. Their latest demand is for a pet.”  
  
He sighed. “They’re good kids really. But they are just _kids_. They haven’t learnt the difference between right and wrong yet, and that love doesn’t come from a wallet. And as a far as I can tell my wife is making no effort to correct that thinking.”  
  
“James, I…”  
  
Lester held up a hand. “I don’t want your pity, Cutter. I was perfectly aware of how my career would affect my life when I chose it. I don’t regret it. I only wish that my wife could have been more understanding of it, and helped the children to understand too.” Another sigh. “But it’s too late to change things now. My job put paid to my home life, and when everything started going wrong that same job ironically became a bit of a refuge. All of which will give my wife ample ammunition to keep my children away from me completely should I ever choose to push her too far.”  
  
“I’m sorry…”  
  
“I said, I don’t want your pity!” Lester snapped. There were a couple of moments of strained silence, and then the civil servant gave Nick a strange look. “How is it, Cutter, that I’ve ended up telling you more about my private life than any other person in a very long time? How has that happened?”  
  
Nick smiled wryly. “It may have escaped your notice, but you’re not the only one around here who’s an emotional mess.”  
  
But Lester’s only response to that was to stand abruptly, looking, Nick thought, rather flustered.  
  
“Well, I think maybe it’s time for me to turn in. You can see yourself out, can’t you, Professor? I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”  
  
He vanished before Nick had a chance to answer, and a few seconds later Nick heard a door shut with a thud, and knew that he wouldn’t be seeing Lester again that evening.  
  
But he didn’t leave immediately. It had been another night of revelations, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all. He sat for a little while longer, turning everything over in his mind, slowly realising that Lester was far more human than everyone had suspected.  
  
It was a few minutes before he realised his tiredness was creeping back over him again, the few sips of coffee he’d been able to take not enough to keep the lethargy at bay. His thoughts were becoming more and more sluggish, and he let his eyes drift shut. It wouldn’t hurt to rest for just a couple more moments…


	4. Chapter 4

A hand shaking his shoulder dragged him back to consciousness, and Nick blinked against the bright light as he tried to remember where he was.  
  
“Cutter? Cutter, are you awake?”  
  
Squinting, Nick made out the blurred outline of Lester’s face, peering down at him and looking…concerned?  
  
That was right. He was in Lester’s flat. He must have fallen asleep before he’d got a chance to leave.  
  
“Cutter? Cutter!”  
  
“I’m fine, I’m awake.” Nick stretched, trying to work the kinks out of his neck and back that resulted from dropping off on a sofa. “Is it morning already?”  
  
Lester was still standing over him, but he had at least removed his hand from Nick’s shoulder. “That depends on whether you consider 2am morning,” he replied. “You woke me up.”  
  
“How? Oh…I was dreaming again, wasn’t I?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Nick examined his memory. The vestiges of the nightmare were still there, as normal, but he’d barely noticed them in the midst of his confusion as to his location. “Sorry,” he muttered.  
  
“This is getting to be rather a habit, one of us waking the other from his dreams,” Lester observed, sounding somewhere between sympathetic and exasperated.  
  
“Sorry,” said Nick again. He levered himself off the sofa, trying to ignore the protests of his stiff muscles. “Look, I’ll go home, get out of your hair. Obviously I didn’t mean to fall asleep in your living room.” Shaking his head slightly to clear the last of the lingering cobwebs, he took a couple of faltering steps towards the door.  
  
“Wait.” There was something unidentifiable in Lester’s voice now, and Nick turned back curiously.  
  
“I’m probably going to regret this, but I can’t let you go off into the night now, can I? You’ll probably fall asleep behind the wheel and get yourself killed. And then I’ll have to find a new team leader for the ARC, and they’ll probably be even more annoying than you are. If such a thing is possible.”  
  
“What do you suggest, then?”  
  
“Well, you’ll have to stay here, obviously. Don’t look at me like that! I haven’t got a heart of stone, you know.”  
  
“Okay, if you insist. I’m sure the sofa will be far more comfortable if I’m lying on it rather than sleeping on it.”  
  
“Not the sofa.” At Nick’s surprised look, Lester hunched his shoulders defensively. “It’s too short for you, and besides, that’s very expensive leather upholstery. I don’t want you damaging it.”  
  
“So where will I sleep?”  
  
Lester heaved a sigh, his expression suggesting that he _was_ already regretting his offer. “You’ll have to share my bed. It’s a king size, so there will be plenty of room.”  
  
Nick felt his eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Are you kidding? Haven’t you got a spare room or something?”  
  
“No. Like I said, this flat is only adequate,” Lester replied. “And believe me, this situation is _definitely_ making me consider finding a better one. One with more than one bedroom, for a start.” He sighed again. “But as it is, we’ll have to make do. Come with me.”  
  
“But what if I have another nightmare?” Nick objected, trailing after Lester. _Or what if you do?_  
  
“Don’t,” said Lester succinctly. He led the way into the bedroom, and Nick took in the sight of the large bed, the covers rumpled where Lester had thrown them back upon being awoken.  
  
Lester was rummaging in a chest of drawers. “Here, put these on.”  
  
Nick caught the t-shirt and pyjama bottoms that were tossed to him, realising as he did so that Lester’s own taste in nightwear was rather more sophisticated than his own. Nick was fairly sure the other man’s pyjamas were silk, but on Lester it looked…right. Nick himself certainly wouldn’t be able to carry off a look like that, and he was glad the clothing he had been given was plain cotton.  
  
“The bathroom’s across the hall,” Lester indicated. “Try not to take too long, we’ve already lost enough sleep for tonight.”  
  
Obediently, Nick hurried out of his clothes and into the borrowed nightwear, returning from the bathroom to find Lester already back in bed, waiting impatiently. He halted in the doorway, confused.  
  
“Oh, come on, Cutter. Since when did you get so squeamish? I’m sure you and Stephen shared tents hundreds of times on your expeditions. How is this any different?”  
  
 _It just is_. But Nick wasn’t sure why. Lester was right. He’d shared far smaller spaces with Stephen over the years, so why was he so hesitant about this?  
  
But he didn’t say any of that to Lester, instead setting his pile of folded clothes on a chair in the corner of the room, and then sliding into the bed next to Lester.  
  
Lester muttered something that sounded like, “Finally,” and immediately turned off the bedside lamp. The room was plunged into darkness.  
  
Nick willed himself to relax. There was plenty of room in the bed, and there was no doubt it was more comfortable than the sofa would have been. And yet he couldn’t seem to get rid of the tension in his limbs.  
  
“I shouldn’t have done that just now.” Lester’s voice came suddenly out of the darkness, surprising Nick. He’d thought Lester would want to go straight back to sleep.  
  
“Done what?”  
  
“Mentioning Hart that way. It was a bit…tactless.”  
  
Surprised, Nick raised his eyebrows. But he didn’t call Lester on his sudden contrition. “It’s okay, honestly. You can talk about him. I’m not going to break down simply at the mention of his name. I miss him, and god knows I don’t want people to pretend like he never existed.”  
  
“Oh, well, I’ll bear that in mind.”  
  
There was genuine sympathy in Lester’s voice now, and Nick wondered if perhaps the man was only capable of showing his softer side when no one could actually see it.  
  
The thought made him smile, and quite suddenly he relaxed. It was silly to be so tense. This was more comfortable than the sofa, and he knew he should take every opportunity to sleep decently that he could.  
  
He felt the tiredness creeping back in at the edges of his consciousness, and let his eyes start to slide shut. But before he surrendered to it completely, he made the effort to speak again.  
  
“James?”  
  
“Yes, Cutter?”  
  
“Thank you for this.”  
  
“You’re welcome, Cutter.”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Nick awoke in the morning to the unusual sensation of having a warm body pressed against him. It was something he’d become unused to in the years since Helen’s disappearance – despite the accuracy of Lester’s point about his sharing sleeping space with Stephen in the past, the pair of them had never been what could be termed as ‘snugglers’, except in those instances when sharing body heat had been a necessity.  
  
So it was several seconds before his still half-asleep brain reminded him that it was neither Helen nor Stephen he was in bed with, but Lester.  
  
That woke him up properly, and Nick suddenly became aware that, not only was Lester pressed right up against his back, but that there was an arm curled around his waist, treating him like nothing so much as an overgrown teddy bear.  
  
Feeling deeply uncomfortable, Nick wondered how he could extract himself from this predicament without waking Lester. He was embarrassed enough as it was without the other man being aware of what he’d done, even if it was completely unintentional.  
  
Then the situation deteriorated. Lester stirred slightly, his grip around Nick tightening, and Nick abruptly felt something else pressing against him.  
  
He froze, trying not to panic, although horribly aware that the tension he was radiating was more than likely to wake Lester up.  
  
Then Lester shifted again, and as his morning erection slid against Nick’s buttocks, to his horror Nick felt his own cock twitch unmistakeably in reaction.  
  
He had to get out of here, _right now_. Moving as quickly and smoothly as he could, Nick slid out from under Lester’s encircling arm, and then scrambled completely out of the bed. Not waiting to see if he’d woken Lester in the process, he fled to the bathroom.  
  
Perched on the edge of the bath, Nick tried to calm his rapid breathing and racing heartbeat. His erection had already wilted in his panic, but he didn’t need a physical reminder of those few seconds and what they’d felt like. He shook his head to push the memory away, and got up to stand in front of the sink, surveying his tired expression and rumpled hair in the mirror for a moment before bending to splash some cold water on his face.  
  
It was another five minutes before he heard movement in the bedroom, and knew that Lester had finally surfaced. The subsequent knock on the bathroom door startled him badly, and it was several seconds before he could answer with a steady voice.  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Cutter, are you all right?”  
  
“I’m fine. I’ll be out in a moment.”  
  
“Good. I need to take a shower before we leave for the ARC. Do you want coffee?”  
  
God, did he want coffee. “Yes, please.”  
  
When he was sure Lester was in the kitchen, Nick ventured out of the bathroom and hurried back into the bedroom. Unwilling to spend long in there, he threw on his clothes and then scuttled into the living room, also unwilling to face Lester quite yet.  
  
The sound of the shower alerted him that the coast was clear, and he finally moved to the kitchen, spying the fresh cup of coffee instantly and gulping half of it down in one go before he sat down at the kitchen table. He knew he should eat something as well, but he was more reluctant to go poking round Lester’s kitchen than Lester seemed to have been about poking around _his_ , so he contented himself with a top-up of coffee from the cafetiere, and told himself that he’d grab something when they got to work.  
  
“Cutter?”  
  
Nick jumped, his hand knocking against his cup and tipping it over, the dregs of his coffee flowing across the tabletop in a dark brown slick.  
  
“Oh, sorry…” Grabbing some tissues from a box on a shelf, Nick dabbed ineffectually at the mess until Lester produced a damp cloth and wiped up the remainder with quiet efficiency.  
  
“Don’t worry about it. No harm done. For once.” Lester was looking at him curiously. “Are you sure you’re all right, Cutter? You seem jumpy.”  
  
“I’m perfectly fine,” Nick lied. “You just startled me, that’s all. I was miles away.”  
  
The explanation seemed to satisfy Lester, and with the mess cleared up, they collected their jackets and set off for the ARC. Nick was grateful for the driving to occupy his attention, negotiating the early morning traffic providing the perfect excuse not to talk to his passenger.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
“Cutter!”  
  
Nick spun round so fast his vision swam, and thus it was several seconds before he recognised Lester standing in his office doorway. He felt himself tense up immediately.  
  
“Yes, what is it?”  
  
“It’s half past ten, is what it is, Cutter. It may have escaped your memory, but we had a meeting at ten o’clock. And since Lorraine tells me that your phone has been engaged for the past twenty minutes, I decided to come and see if you’d fallen through an anomaly or something.”  
  
Nick’s eyes strayed to his phone, and he tried to keep his face free of guilt, pretending that he _hadn’t_ left it off the hook on purpose. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realise the time. Shall I come now?”  
  
Lester sighed in annoyance. “There isn’t time now. I have a scheduled call with the Minister in fifteen minutes. We’ll have to make it this afternoon. Does three o’clock suit you?”  
  
“That’s fine.”  
  
Glaring at him, Lester’s eyes nonetheless held a trace of sympathy. “Good. I appreciate you’re having a hard time at the moment, professor, but we all still have a job to do. And today that means showing up on time for meetings. Got that?”  
  
“Absolutely.”  
  
“All right. I’ll see you later. _Don’t_ forget this time.”  
  
He left, and Nick resisted the urge to smack his forehead on his desk. He was fairly sure Lester knew he’d ‘forgotten’ their meeting on purpose, even if he hadn’t worked out the reason why.  
  
Truthfully, Nick hadn’t been sure he could be alone in the same room as the civil servant without memories of what had happened that morning intruding. The whole incident had been over in a flash, and yet he couldn’t stop his face flushing every time he thought of it.  
  
He knew he hadn’t imagined his own reaction to Lester’s closeness, and he didn’t know what to make of it. He’d already told himself a dozen times that it was simply the result of a lack of that kind of human contact for nearly a decade, and that it was nothing to be ashamed of.  
  
And he _wasn’t_ ashamed of it. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that it had been _Lester_ that had provoked the reaction, and Nick simply didn’t know what to make of that.  
  
 _Christ, is this what Jenny meant when she said opposites attract?_  
  
That was ridiculous. The cliché was clearly true in some cases, but not when it came to him and Lester. It couldn’t be. The pair of them couldn’t even be in the same room without disagreeing. They didn’t even like each other.  
  
 _Except that’s not quite true any more, is it?_ whispered a little voice in his head.  
  
He couldn’t deny it. They _had_ developed a degree of understanding lately that Nick hadn’t imagined they’d ever reach. Much as he hated to admit it, they had helped each other.  
  
 _But all that means is that we don’t want to throttle each other all the time. Nothing else._  
  
But all the same, he couldn’t rid himself of the memory of that morning. And then he began to wonder what had prompted Lester’s cuddling up to him in the first place. Clearly the man had had no inkling it might happen when he’d invited Nick to share the bed.  
  
 _It was just the presence of another body, that’s all_ , Nick told himself firmly. Lester had admitted himself he was separated from his wife, and therefore it had probably been a while since he’d shared a bed with anyone, much like Nick’s own situation.  
  
 _It was purely instinctual, nothing more._  
  
And Lester definitely hadn’t realised what he’d done – there had been no trace of embarrassment from him at any point.  
  
Which, Nick realised, only made his own behaviour that much more pronounced. He needed to snap out of it. He would forget the whole incident, go to the meeting with Lester that afternoon, and that would be an end to it.  
  
It was nothing to get worked up about.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite according to plan.  
  
Shortly before lunch, Connor appeared, asking if Nick would come and look at some readings on the detector from the week’s anomalies. Nick went willingly enough – anything that would provide a distraction was welcome – and soon food, time, and unfortunate incidents were forgotten in their discussion of data and theories.  
  
It wasn’t until an angry shout shattered Nick’s concentration that he even remembered where he was.  
  
“Professor!”  
  
Annoyed, Nick looked up to find an equally pissed off Lester glaring down at him from the balcony outside his office. But his irritated response died in his throat as he recalled the meeting he was supposed to be in. His watch told him it was nearly half past three, and that this time he truly _had_ forgotten his prior commitment.  
  
Lester glared for a couple more seconds, and then jerked his head in a clear gesture of summons before disappearing back inside his office.  
  
“Uh oh, someone’s in trouble,” Connor observed, looking quite relieved that for once it wasn’t him.  
  
 _You don’t know the half of it._  
  
“Carry on working on the data, and I’ll be back as quick as I can,” Nick told the young man as he stood up. He couldn’t even remember what this meeting with Lester was supposed to be about, but right now he was out of excuses. And Lester clearly wasn’t going to let the day end without dragging Nick into his office.  
  
“Right you are, Professor,” replied Connor cheerfully. “If you’re not out in an hour, shall I send a rescue party?”  
  
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Nick said wryly. “Thanks for the offer, though.”  
  
Hurrying up the ramp, Nick nodded to Lorraine as he passed her desk, and then slid through Lester’s office door and sat down opposite the civil servant, doing his best to meet Lester’s continuing glare with equanimity.  
  
“Sorry, Connor and I got rather involved in our theories and lost track of time.”  
  
Lester’s look told him that his boss believed in his forgetfulness about as much as he’d done that morning. But there wasn’t a lot Nick could do about that, so he choked off any further excuses, and waited to see what Lester had to say.  
  
But Lester’s first words weren’t at all what he expected.  
  
“Cutter, is something the matter?”  
  
“What?” _Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it._ “No, I’m fine.”  
  
“I was wondering if you’d had further trouble sleeping last night. I didn’t notice, but did you have another nightmare?”  
  
This solicitous side of Lester was making Nick even more uncomfortable. “No, it’s nothing like that.”  
  
“Aha. So there is _something_ wrong, then?”  
  
Nick cursed his slip of the tongue. “No, really, it’s nothing,” he said hastily. “Something…odd…just happened to me today, that’s all. It’s nothing you need to be worried about.” He held his breath, waiting to see if Lester was going to push further. But to his relief, the civil servant sat back in his chair and picked up some paperwork.  
  
“Fine. If you say that, then I believe you. _This_ time.” However, his tone made it clear that if he felt Nick was having problems again, he would make his business to find out what they were. “Now, about this data that you and Mr. Temple have been looking at…”  
  
Relieved, it was several seconds before Nick realised that he was required to answer. “What? Oh, yes. Connor’s found some interesting patterns in the data collected from the last four anomalies. We’ve been trying to work out what it might mean.”  
  
“I’m listening.”  
  
“It might be better if I show you. Perhaps you could come down to the anomaly detector, and Connor and I can show you some of our preliminary findings.”  
  
 _Because three, as they say, is a crowd. And I could do with a crowd right now._  
  
“All right. Lead on, Professor.”


	5. Chapter 5

The nightmares were getting worse. Nick had always understood that, over time, as life moved on, grief faded and so did its symptoms.  
  
But that wasn’t happening. His dreams of Stephen were becoming more vivid, more intrusive. And they were no longer fading to the back of his mind when he awoke – instead the memories that he had tried to hard to bury were coming to the forefront again. He could see the images of that day in his head so clearly now, without any effort at all.  
  
And when he wasn’t dreaming of Stephen, he was dreaming of Lester. Half-formed visions of things he didn’t even know he wanted haunted his remaining sleeping hours, and he always woke up with a racing heart and trembling body, certain parts of his anatomy in no doubt about what _they_ wanted.  
  
He threw himself back into his work, refining and developing a fledgling theory for predicting the anomalies based on the data Connor had turned up, working on it for hours on end until his eyes and brain and back ached.  
  
Nick knew he was falling back into old habits. He _knew_ he was doing again exactly what he and the others had had to snap Lester out of. But he couldn’t help it. He _needed_ the distraction. He needed some way to avoid the night terrors of both varieties that awaited him if he fell asleep.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Sighing in frustration, Nick dropped his head into his hands, pressing his palms against his eyes until spots danced on the inside of his eyelids.  
  
His mind was spinning, and he knew he should stop, or at least take a break. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been working, but he knew it was long enough that he’d receive a lecture from the next person to enter his office.  
  
That thought suddenly made the prospect of a coffee break seem much more attractive. If five minutes rest would avert a telling off, it would probably be worth it.  
  
Too late.  
  
A light touch on his arm made him jump, and he turned his head to see Jenny looking down at him with a concerned expression on her face.  
  
“If you’ve come to lecture me, I don’t want to hear it,” he said grumpily.  
  
“Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to join me for a quick coffee,” Jenny replied, her tone entirely reasonable.  
  
“That’s just a ploy to get me out of this office,” Nick said, not fooled in the slightest.  
  
“Come and have a coffee,” Jenny repeated. “Five minutes, and then you can get back to work.”  
  
Nick felt his annoyance die without any opposition to fuel it. And besides, hadn’t he just been contemplating getting a coffee anyway? “Fine,” he agreed. “But _only_ five minutes.”  
  
Jenny nodded, and then led the way to the rec room. Waving Nick into a chair, she then proceeded to make two cups of coffee, pressing one into Nick’s grateful hands before sitting in a chair opposite him.  
  
“You’re not coping,” she said, without preamble.  
  
 _So much for not getting a lecture._  
  
“I’m fine.”  
  
“And pigs all over the country have suddenly started sprouting wings.”  
  
Nick glared at her for a moment, but Jenny had worked in PR too long to be intimidated by a mere evolutionary zoology professor. Nick gave up.  
  
“Okay, I admit it – I’m not sleeping very well. Are you happy now?”  
  
Jenny gave him a look. “But it’s more than that, isn’t it?” she said. “There’s a difference between not sleeping very well, and deliberately avoiding sleep in the first place. And you’re doing the latter.”  
  
“Have you all been spying on me or something?”  
  
“Pretty much, yes,” Jenny admitted easily. She smiled at Nick’s surprised look. “We’re worried about you, Nick. Everyone is.”  
  
“Well, that’s nice of you, but…”  
  
“It’s Stephen, isn’t it? Nick, you know what happened to him wasn’t your fault, don’t you?”  
  
“I should have stopped him.”  
  
“Stephen was his own man. He knew what he was doing. I very much doubt you would have been able to stop him.”  
  
Nick was silent for a few seconds. Then, “I have nightmares about it,” he confessed. “About that day. That’s why I don’t sleep. I thought they were getting better, but lately they’ve been getting worse.”  
  
“It’s perfectly understandable. What happened was awful, and you had to witness it.” Jenny paused. “Is this what you talked to Lester about?”  
  
Lester. Now there was a topic he really didn’t want to discuss. “Yes,” Nick replied shortly.  
  
Jenny looked at him curiously. “Has something happened between you two?” she asked. “You seemed to be getting on better after you talked, but now you’re avoiding him.”  
  
“I’m not avoiding him.”  
  
“Nick, Lester’s not even sure if you work here any more, it’s been that long since you were in the same room as him. What’s going on?”  
  
For a few moments, the two halves of Nick’s mind fought a vicious battle. Tell Jenny, and maybe get some insight and advice into his problem, plus the relief of just having _told_ someone. On the other hand, tell Jenny, and have to deal with the embarrassment and possibly ridicule. Not that he actually thought that Jenny would laugh at him outright.  
  
He sighed. “Stephen isn’t the only person I’ve been dreaming about,” he said slowly, and in such a quiet voice that Jenny had to lean forward to catch the words.  
  
“What do you mean? Oh… _oh_ , I see…” Jenny looked rather taken aback, and when she spoke again she sounded like she was struggling for a steady tone of voice. “How did this happen?”  
  
Taking a deep breath, Nick told her all about the incident in Lester’s flat almost three weeks previously. “Lester doesn’t know anything about it,” he finished. “And _I_ don’t know what it means. Although my subconscious seems pretty certain about it. Perhaps I’m just stressed, and it’s manifesting itself in a bizarre way.” He choked out a bitter laugh. “Or maybe I’m unknowingly so sexually frustrated that I’ll take it anywhere I can!”  
  
“You don’t mean that,” Jenny said sternly. Then she softened. “Look, I’m no psychologist, but I’d say that at the very least the stress of this situation with Lester can’t be helping your nightmares about Stephen. They’re very probably related.”  
  
“So what should I do about it? And before you say anything, I refuse to ask Lester outright if he has the same sort of feelings as the ones I appear to be having.”  
  
“I’m not saying you should,” replied Jenny. “But if you really want to find out if, at the very least, what _you’re_ feeling is genuine, then maybe you could try testing the waters a bit. Spend some time with James again instead of avoiding him. You can’t avoid him forever, anyway. The ARC isn’t _that_ big.”  
  
“I suppose you’re right…”  
  
“I might point out that the very fact of your avoidance suggests that there’s more to this than just stress or a simple physical reaction,” Jenny added. “If it was just that, I really think you’d have been able to brush it off more easily.”  
  
Nick smiled ruefully. “Are you sure you’re not a psychologist?” he said. “Because you’re very good at it.”  
  
“I’m in PR – I have to know how to read people,” said Jenny. “Talk to James, Nick. It might help. And try to get some sleep. I know it’s hard. But that might help too. You can’t go on like this, running yourself into the ground. You’re useless to the anomaly project in this state.”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Nick’s knock on the door was tentative, and as he looked up Lester’s only outward sign of reaction was a minutely raised eyebrow. Nonetheless, Nick took that as permission to enter, and he walked into the room.  
  
“Professor Cutter. To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”  
  
Nick decided that he probably deserved the sarcasm in Lester’s tone, and didn’t rise to it. “I’ve got something I’d like to discuss with you, if that’s all right?”  
  
Lester’s eyebrow rose fractionally higher, and he gestured to a chair.  
  
“It’s to do with the anomalies,” Nick said as he sat down. “I’ve been working on a way to predict them.”  
  
Nick had decided that Jenny was right – he did need to talk to Lester. That was why he was here now. But he still didn’t feel able to bring up the subject of his dreams outright, and besides, he suspected that he probably wasn’t Lester’s favourite person right now. Talking about work seemed like the best way to ease himself back into the man’s good graces, and try and sound things out a bit.  
  
The surprise on Lester’s face was not as well hidden as the man probably hoped it was, and Nick wondered if Lester had been expecting him to say something else. Then he dismissed the notion – Lester just probably hadn’t been expecting Nick to bring up quite such an important topic.  
  
“It’s still in the early stages,” Nick added quickly, “but I think I might have something. I’m hoping to get Connor involved, to help me with the finer details. If that’s okay?”  
  
“I’m sure Mr. Temple will be overjoyed to offer his assistance,” replied Lester. “Now, maybe you can fill me in on a few of the details you already have? This is rather a momentous announcement, Professor. Perhaps one you should have mentioned a little earlier than this?”  
  
“I didn’t really want to say anything until I had a firmer idea of whether it was feasible or not,” Nick demurred. “I’ve been working on it flat out for the past couple of weeks.”  
  
“Miss Lewis has informed me of that fact, at least,” Lester said. “I believe ‘he’s been pulling some all-nighters’ were her exact words.”  
  
Nick remembered what Jenny had said about spying on him. And he suddenly realised at whose behest that might have been. Lester had been keeping an eye on him, even if the reverse was no longer true.  
  
Suddenly, he felt guilty.  
  
“Cutter?” Lester was giving him a slightly odd look, and Nick mentally shook himself.  
  
“Sorry.”  
  
“Details, Professor. Tell me about his theory of yours.”  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Nick’s explanation came to a close, and he couldn’t help noticing that Lester’s eyes had glazed over slightly. “Sorry,” he said again. “I have a tendency to ramble when I get enthusiastic about something.”  
  
“Well, I must say that I think I only understood about half of that,” Lester replied. “Can’t you summarise it in a powerpoint presentation or something?”  
  
“I could show you some of my figures and diagrams, if you like,” Nick said. “Seeing it visually might help.”  
  
“By all means.”  
  
“Can I use your computer? My files and data are saved on the network. It’ll save us having to traipse back down to my office.”  
  
Mutely, Lester moved aside a little, and Nick stood up and walked round to the other side of the desk, stooping over the keyboard as he quickly located the files he needed to demonstrate his theory. A graph popped up on the screen, and Lester leaned a little closer as Nick started explaining again.  
  
“This three-dimensional graph plots the temporal point at which the anomaly opens in the present against the point it leads to in the past or future, with the additional vector of geographical location. This allows us to see if there any patterns in when and where the anomalies open. It’s the first step in trying to predict them, and the more anomalies we encounter, the clearer any pattern will become. That’s the hope, anyway…”  
  
After a few more charts and graphs had flashed by, Nick’s second attempt at explaining himself drew to a close. “Is this any clearer now?” he asked.  
  
But Lester didn’t respond, and Nick was about to ask the question again, when he suddenly realised what was wrong.  
  
He was hovering over Lester, his left hand unconsciously resting on the civil servant’s right shoulder, and his head low enough for his breath to ruffle the hair near the man’s temple.  
  
Nick froze. In his enthusiasm he had forgotten himself. And, apparently, his inhibitions. And seemingly Lester had noticed.  
  
He snatched his hand away and straightened up abruptly. “Yes, well, maybe this isn’t really the time for this,” he gabbled. “Perhaps I’ll make up that powerpoint, like you suggested, and then I can do a presentation for everyone…”  
  
“Cutter.” Lester’s voice was quiet, but it still cut through Nick’s bluster. “I may not understand all your technical talk, but I’m not stupid.”  
  
“Of course not…”  
  
“Something’s going on, isn’t it? I hope you don’t expect me to believe that the reason you’ve working all hours again, and avoiding me, is just because you’ve been caught up in this new theory.”  
  
“I…”  
  
Lester stood up suddenly. “This isn’t the place to be discussing this,” he said. “Perhaps we could go and have a drink?”  
  
“I’m not sure…”  
  
“I’m retracting the suggestion,” said Lester. “It’s now an order instead.” He fixed Nick with a sharp look. “We need to talk.”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Outside, Nick was surprised to discover that it had grown dark. He must have spent longer than he thought dithering about how to approach Lester. And working inside the bubble that was the ARC it was all too easy to lose track of the hours.  
  
He followed Lester’s car in his truck, focusing on the red glow of the taillights. They were headed to the same bar they’d visited together previously. Nick had wondered if Lester would propose they repair to one or other of their houses, and he’d balked at the thought. Neutral ground was much better.  
  
They managed to get the same table again as well, in its secluded corner. But once the business of obtaining drinks was done with, Nick wasn’t quite sure what to do next. To tell the truth, he hadn’t envisaged things getting quite this far. He’d imagined a short chat with Lester in the civil servant’s office, and then they’d both go their separate ways for the evening.  
  
Testing the waters seemed to have turned into a full-fledged dive.  
  
But it was Lester who had said they needed to talk, and therefore Nick was determined that the other man should make the next move.  
  
“What’s going on, Cutter?”  
  
The question was blunt, and Nick, who had just taken a mouthful of bitter, choked slightly.  
  
“Nothing,” he coughed, although he knew Lester wouldn’t believe his denial.  
  
“I’m sure I can guess part of it,” the civil servant continued, as if Nick hadn’t spoken. “You’re still dreaming about Stephen, aren’t you? That’s why you’ve started working such long hours again.”  
  
Ironically, this was the _safe_ area of conversation, and Nick nodded. “Yes,” he replied. “They’ve been getting worse of late, too. So can you blame me for wanting to avoid them?”  
  
“No. But I think we’ve established that working yourself into the ground and avoiding your fears doesn’t work. That’s what you told me, isn’t it?”  
  
“I suppose…”  
  
“There’s no ‘suppose’ about it. It’s the truth. And besides, it worked for me.”  
  
Nick suddenly realised that he had no idea how Lester had been faring with regards to his own nightmares over these past weeks, and he shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Are your nightmares gone, then?”  
  
“Not quite,” Lester allowed. “But they are much less frequent, and much less potent.” His brows drew together into a slight frown. “I told you I refused to let Leek win, Professor.”  
  
“I’m glad to hear that,” Nick told him sincerely. He wondered if he was off the hook, if confessing that he was still dreaming himself would be enough to satisfy Lester as to his recent behaviour.  
  
“However,” said Lester severely, “none of this explains why you’ve been avoiding me for the past two weeks.”  
  
Nick’s heart sank. “I’ve been very busy working on this new theory about the anomalies…” he began, but the excuse sounded lame, even to his own ears.  
  
Lester looked distinctly unimpressed. “Try again, Cutter,” he said, folding his arms and settling back in his seat in a manner that said he was prepared to wait for as long as it took.  
  
“I really can’t explain it,” Nick said desperately. “It’s not…simple. And I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he finished quietly.  
  
“Ah.” Lester leaned forward. “If I were to hazard a guess at this juncture, I’d say that our somewhat more intimate than usual relationship of late has made you nervous.”  
  
“Have you been talking to Jenny?” Nick blurted, and then snapped his mouth shut abruptly.  
  
“No,” replied Lester. “Although it would appear that _you_ have. Perhaps I _should_ speak to Miss Lewis, though. She might be able to enlighten me as to the accuracy of my guess.”  
  
Nick sighed. “No, don’t do that,” he said in a low voice. “Your guess is correct. Things have changed between us, and I don’t know quite how to handle it.”  
  
“Thank you for being honest, Cutter.” Something that was almost a smile flashed across Lester’s face. “Although the next question is, how much exactly _have_ things changed between us?”  
  
Nick’s eyebrows shot up. Lester’s perceptiveness was starting to unnerve him. “I don’t know what you mean,” he bluffed.  
  
Lester looked disappointed. “Back to this so soon, Professor? I thought you’d decided to be honest.”  
  
Needled, Nick set his drink down on the table with enough force to cause some of it to slop over the rim of the glass. “Fine. For me things have changed enough that they’re scaring me. I’m not sure what it means, and I’m _definitely_ not sure whether you feel the same way. So excuse me if I haven’t dealt with it in the best manner.”  
  
“I do.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“I do feel the same way.” Lester smiled wryly. “Believe me, you’re the last person I expected to let into my life, and the idea has been disconcerting me as much as it has you – even if I seem to be better at hiding it than you are. I’m still not exactly sure what’s happening between us, but here we are, and there doesn’t seem to be anything either one of us can do about it.”  
  
“Oh.” Nick took another mouthful of his drink and thought for a moment. “So where do we go from here?”  
  
“Well, for a start, I think you need to go home and try to get some sleep,” replied Lester sternly. “You’ll pardon me for saying it, but you really do look like hell.”  
  
“Thanks,” said Nick. But he was smiling now. “You’re probably right. Even if the prospect doesn’t hold much appeal right now.” Then an idea occurred to him. “Perhaps…perhaps you could come with me?” he asked, almost shyly. “Against all odds, we seem to be good for each other. I might sleep better if you’re there.”  
  
“I suppose that could be arranged.”  
  
“I do just mean to sleep,” Nick added hastily. “I’m not trying to push you into anything.” Then he flushed, wishing he hadn’t brought the subject up.  
  
But Lester was eyeing him approvingly. “I don’t think we’re quite there yet, Cutter,” he replied, and for some reason the ‘yet’ made Nick blush even more.  
  
“Thank you.”  
  
Lester nodded. “Finish your drink, and then we can get going.”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
By the time they reached the house, this time with Lester following along behind in his car, Nick’s nerves had returned in full force. What was he doing? What was Lester doing? He still didn’t really know where they stood with each other, and he was beginning to wonder if he’d read the situation entirely wrongly.  
  
But once they were inside the front door, Lester took charge, steering Nick into the kitchen, settling him at the table, and then whipping up a quick supper with such breathtaking efficiency that Nick started to see how the man had got so far in his chosen career.  
  
It was slightly incongruous watching Lester eating beans on toast while still dressed in his expensive suit, his only concession to the informal atmosphere a slight loosening of his tie. But the civil servant seemed to enjoy the simple food just as much as a fancy dinner in a Michelin starred restaurant, and Nick decided not to comment.  
  
Afterwards they retired to the living room, where Lester put the news on, watching a story about the latest political wranglings between Labour and the Tories with every appearance of sincere interest.  
  
Nick allowed his mind to wander. The atmosphere in the room was markedly different to the last time they had sat here together, but he still wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, and his worries, which had been soothed by food and a chance to relax, surfaced once more. He sat, his eyes flicking between Lester and the television screen, and felt like he was back to square one.  
  
Eventually a news story about a young Royal’s most recent misdemeanour ended, and the sports reports started. Sport apparently _wasn’t_ something Lester was interested in.  
  
“You’re thinking too loudly,” the other man said abruptly.  
  
Nick started at being addressed, and then smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”  
  
“Stop over-analysing, Cutter. All that’s going to happen tonight is that you’re going to get a decent night’s sleep in your own bed, and I, for my sins, am going to join you. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.”  
  
“Are you…” A jaw-cracking yawn interrupted Nick’s words, and Lester looked smug.  
  
“I think my case has just gathered some new evidence.”  
  
“Okay, all right, bed it is,” Nick responded, a trifle grumpily. Although he couldn’t stop his lips twitching.  
  
“Nice to know that you can follow a suggestion when it’s a good one,” said Lester. He stood up, and Nick followed suit. “Why don’t you lead the way?”  
  
Getting ready for bed was achieved in silence, although it was comfortable now rather than nervous. Nick’s bed wasn’t as big as Lester’s, and as they lay next to each other he could feel the warmth of the other man’s body even though they weren’t touching.  
  
“Go to sleep, Cutter,” Lester instructed.  
  
“I might dream,” Nick pointed out. “I don’t want to disturb your sleep.”  
  
“I’ll deal with it if it happens. And so will you.” Lester’s tone was brisk, and he suddenly sounded more like the civil servant Nick was used to. Strangely, the thought was comforting. This was still Lester, not some stranger.  
  
Nick could feel his eyelids starting to droop shut, and he abandoned any thoughts of continuing the debate. He knew what might be waiting for him in his slumber, but the thought didn’t bother him as much as it might have done. Before he could say, “Good-night,” he was asleep.  
  
He only remembered waking once in the night, the tatters of his nightmare dispersing as he felt a gentle hand on his arm, and heard a voice muttering soothing nonsense.


	6. Chapter 6

It wasn’t the first surreal awakening Nick had experienced in the past month, but for a moment he was slightly thrown by the feeling of another body pressed up behind him – a body he knew to be Lester’s.  
  
Then he smiled as he realised that he was once again being cuddled like a giant teddy bear, and wondered if the changes in their relationship meant that he could now tease the other man about this.  
  
Except that he still wasn’t sure exactly what the changes in their relationship _were_.  
  
Behind him, Lester stirred, and a sudden tensing of the arm around his midriff told Nick that his companion was awake.  
  
“I suppose this is what sent you running for the hills last time, correct?” a wry voice observed.  
  
“Er, yes. This…and a little bit more,” Nick replied.  
  
“A little bit more?” Nick could sense the raised eyebrows. “Ah. I see. Sorry about that.”  
  
Abruptly, Nick moved, shuffling himself round until he was lying on his back and could see Lester’s face. Lester’s arm remained draped across his stomach, but neither of them made any effort to remove it.  
  
“I’m shocked. James Lester, voluntarily apologising for something? What is the world coming to?” Nick grinned, his spirits inexplicably lighter than they had been the night before.  
  
“Very funny, Cutter. Being apologetic doesn’t get you very far in my line of work, I’ll have you know. So it’s not a trait I’ve ever cultivated.”  
  
“Well, you’re surprisingly good at it, even so. Apology accepted.” Nick’s grin widened. “Although I’ve decided now I don’t mind so very much.”  
  
A hint of a return smile flickered across Lester’s face, but on the whole his expression remained sombre. And, Nick suddenly noticed, he looked tired as well.  
  
His own smile died. “I had a nightmare, didn’t I?” he asked. “Sorry.” He frowned. “Strange, though – I can’t really remember it.”  
  
“You did, yes,” Lester confirmed. “I woke you from it, but you went straight back to sleep almost immediately.  
  
“But _you_ didn’t.”  
  
Lester didn’t answer, although his silence was confirmation enough. Nick opened his mouth to apologise again.  
  
“Shut up, Cutter,” Lester forestalled him, although his tone was without rancour. “I’ll survive.”  
  
That was one thing you could definitely say for Lester – he was a survivor.  
  
There were a few moments of silence in which the two men gazed steadily at each other. Then Nick cleared his throat and looked away.  
  
“So. What do we do now?” he asked, a little awkwardly.  
  
“Well, for a start I think we need to have a chat about a couple of things.”  
  
“Before a shower and some coffee?” Nick joked, knowing his flippant tone was at odds with Lester’s serious one.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Suddenly, Nick felt scared. What if he _had_ read the situation wrongly? What if Lester was only helping him because they were now friends, and nothing more? This could get extremely awkward _extremely_ quickly.  
  
Then the hand resting on Nick’s stomach shifted, seemingly accidentally, until Lester’s fingers were touching the thin strip of pale skin exposed where Nick’s t-shirt had ridden up slightly. Nick felt a not unpleasant shiver run down his spine.  
  
But Lester’s next words drove the reaction from his mind.  
  
“Cutter, this might be a tactless question, but have you ever been this intimate with a man before?”  
  
 _Since when did you care about being tactless?_ Another flippant response rose to Nick’s lips, but he squashed the words before he could utter them. That wasn’t fair to Lester, and he knew they were only born of nervousness anyway.  
  
“No,” he replied honestly, after a moment’s hesitation. “I haven’t. Although, to be frank, I haven’t been intimate with much of anyone over the past few years, male or female. Not really since Helen…”  
  
“I suspected as much. Even if the ARC rumour mill did suggest that there might be something between you and Stephen…ah, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”  
  
“It’s okay,” said Nick quickly, as he felt the familiar flash of pain dart through him. “To tell the truth, I probably _did_ have something of a crush on Stephen. He was practically my only friend for eight years, and we were very close. Nothing of that sort ever happened between us, though,” he added hastily.  
  
Lester was quiet for a few moments. “I know you miss him,” he said eventually, in a rather more subdued voice than Nick was used to from him. “And you’re still grieving for him – hence the nightmares. I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of the situation.”  
  
“Rubbish,” said Nick bluntly, before he could stop himself. “I don’t think that at all. You’re right – I _do_ miss Stephen, and I am still grieving for him. But I’m not some impressionable young man to _be_ taken advantage of. I know what I’m doing.”  
  
“Oh really? So what exactly _are_ you doing, then?” Lester was smiling suddenly, and Nick found himself become a little flustered.  
  
“Well, I’m…we’re…well…oh, hang it all, I haven’t got the faintest idea!”  
  
Lester raised an eyebrow to accompany his smile. “Well, how about this for a start?” He leaned forward suddenly and kissed Nick. Their respective positions in the bed meant that the kiss caught the corner of Nick’s mouth rather than landing full on his lips, but Nick still drew his breath in sharply, feeling the shiver slide down his spine again.  
  
“Ah. Too soon?” Lester looked uncertain – again, not something Nick was used to.  
  
“I don’t think so,” he said slowly. “Maybe you could try that again?”  
  
The uncertain look vanished. “By all means,” Lester said.  
  
He raised himself up on an elbow, and looked down at Nick for a moment, intensely enough that Nick felt his insides start tying themselves in knots. Then he carefully leaned in and brushed his lips full against Nick’s, pressing lightly until Nick’s hand, seemingly of its own accord, curled around the back of his neck and pulled him closer.  
  
The kiss only lasted for a few seconds, but when the two men parted, Nick could feel that he was breathing faster, and he could see that Lester’s cheeks were slightly flushed.  
  
“Well, I think we can count that a success, don’t you?” Lester said, and Nick smiled at the obvious attempt to recover his decorum.  
  
“I’d say so, yes,” he replied. He paused for a few moments before speaking again. “So, I suppose this means I can assume you _have_ been intimate with another man before.”  
  
“Not for a long time,” Lester replied. “Not since before I was married, at any rate.”  
  
“And your wife – does she know?”  
  
“She does not. Believe me when I say she would _definitely_ have used it as ammunition during our divorce, and the subsequent custody battle.”  
  
“Oh.” Nick felt his heart sink abruptly. “So, is this…us…going to cause a problem? She’s going to find out sooner or later.”  
  
Lester was silent for a moment or two. Then, “I know,” he admitted. “But I won’t let it become a problem. I’m not doing anything wrong, and I _will not_ let her use it against me.”  
  
Nick smiled, and his fingers, which were still resting against the side of Lester’s neck, stroked the skin there gently.  
  
Lester smiled too, twitching minutely at the contact. Then he sighed, making a visible effort to regain his equilibrium, and slid out of bed, looking back at Nick over one shoulder.  
  
“I think it’s time we got going, don’t you? I believe you mentioned something about a shower and coffee?”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Nick felt like all eyes were on him as he walked into the ARC next to Lester. Showers and coffee, among other things, had contrived to make even the civil servant break his habit of a lifetime, and arrive at work after nine o’clock. As they entered the atrium, Nick saw that Connor and another technician were parked in front of the anomaly detector, while through one of the plate-glass windows he could see Abby busy with something in the lab.  
  
Lester seemed to notice his tension. “Relax, Cutter,” he said. “You haven’t got a neon sign hanging over your head that says ‘I slept with another man last night.’”  
  
“It’s not that,” replied Nick quickly. He took in Lester’s sceptical look. “Really, it’s not,” he insisted. “It’s…oh, I don’t know what it is. I’ve just been a bit thrown for a loop by all this. It’s not what I expected to happen when I came to check up on you in your office all those weeks ago.”  
  
Now Lester was eyeing him curiously. “You know, I’ve always wondered why you did come to see me that night. It’s not like you’ve ever shown undue concern for me before.”  
  
“I don’t really know myself,” Nick confessed. “Perhaps I subconsciously recognised that you were having similar problems to me, and felt compelled to help. After all, you might work hard, but you’d never worked _that_ hard. You appreciate the finer things in life too much to spend _all_ your time cooped up in here.”  
  
“That’s true,” Lester allowed. “Although I still don’t get enough time to appreciate ‘the finer things in life’, as you call them. The project does have to take priority.”  
  
“Oh, believe me, I know,” Nick told him. “Still, that’s no reason for either of us to carry on working ourselves into the ground.”  
  
“I suppose not.” Lester was looking at him in a way that suddenly made Nick wish there was less people around. But a second later the expression was gone, the mask of professionalism back in place.  
  
“Speaking of the project, I was being serious yesterday when I suggested that you knock up some kind of presentation about your theory. I think it would be good for everyone to see that we might be making some progress.”  
  
“I’ll get on to it right away,” Nick promised. “Connor can help me – he probably knows more about the technical aspects of the anomalies than I do anyway. And it was his data that put me on this track in the first place.”  
  
Lester nodded. “Let me know when you might have something that’s ready to go, and I’ll arrange a meeting.”  
  
“It shouldn’t take too long. Maybe tomorrow morning? It’ll probably help me get my thoughts in order, in any case. I might even gain some new insights.”  
  
“I look forward to it. Now, as you’re not the only one with important work to do…” A faint smile crossed Lester’s face, and Nick returned it.  
  
“Okay. See you later.”  
  
“Of course.” The words were loaded with rather more meaning than Nick had been expecting, and as Lester turned away up the ramp he felt himself rather flustered.  
  
To cover his confusion he beckoned to Connor. The young man left the detector and hurried over.  
  
“Hello, Professor. What were you and Lester talking about so intently? It looked serious.”  
  
It took a couple of seconds for Nick to come up with an answer for that one, until he realised he had a ready-made response. “I’ve been developing a theory for predicting the anomalies, and I’d like you to take a look. Lester wants a presentation fit for laymen by tomorrow – do you think you can help me boil it down into words of less than four syllables?”  
  
As always, Connor looked faintly surprised that his assistance and expertise was being requested, but he nodded vigorously. “Absolutely, Professor. I didn’t know you’d been thinking about something like this.”  
  
“Well, I didn’t want to say anything until I was reasonably sure it was viable. Of course, it might all fall apart under your scrutiny, but I think the idea is pretty solid. Have you got time to come to my lab now, or are you working on something else?” Nick gaze flicked to the detector.  
  
“Oh, no, it’s just routine maintenance. Nothing someone else can’t take care of. I’m ready when you are.”  
  
Nick smiled at the young man’s enthusiasm, and then darted a quick look up towards Lester’s office before leading the way to his lab.  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Over the next couple of weeks the two men fell into an almost easy routine. Lester was insistent that Nick needed to continue facing up to his nightmares, and therefore had to attempt to get a good night’s sleep every night.  
  
They departed the ARC at a reasonable hour every evening, Nick having to drag himself away from his work with Connor on more than one occasion when Lester showed up with a stern look on his face but a twinkle in his eye. In fact, he was sure Connor was beginning to wonder what was going on, if the odd looks the pair of men had been getting from him was any indication.  
  
They always went back to Nick’s place, despite Nick saying that he didn’t mind sleeping in Lester’s flat for some of the time. He felt guilty that he was keeping the other man from his own home, even though Lester didn’t seem to mind, and was firm in his own assertion that Nick would sleep better in his own bed.  
  
Nick was beginning to see a different side to James Lester, one that was kept carefully hidden under the cold sarcastic exterior he wore while at work. He’d caught glimpses of it already, when the man had spoken about his ex-wife and children, and he was absurdly grateful that he was now the focus of it.  
  
The newer aspects of their relationship were still progressing slowly, with neither of them in any hurry to push things along. They shared Nick’s bed every night, but nothing more untoward than a bit of kissing and cuddling occurred – Nick was still amused at Lester’s tendency to snuggle when he was asleep, much to the civil servant’s chagrin.  
  
But for the most part Nick was content with things as they were – this was all still a bit foreign to him. And besides, he agreed with Lester that he needed to deal with the residual issue of his nightmares before they went any further.  
  
It wasn’t until halfway through the second week that Nick awoke one morning to find himself feeling more rested than normal, and he realised, when he searched the still sleepy recesses of his brain, that he couldn’t remember having a nightmare that night.  
  
“You didn’t.”  
  
Lester was awake and regarding him steadily. He appeared to have read Nick’s mind, and Nick half-smiled.  
  
“Really?”  
  
“Really,” Lester confirmed. “You slept right through.”  
  
“Which means that you did as well,” replied Nick. He’d also been feeling guilty that he’d been disturbing Lester’s sleep, and more than once offered the other man the use of his spare room, which Lester had always declined.  
  
Lester smiled and nodded. “It seems you’ve finally turned a corner.”  
  
“Let’s not jump the gun, shall we? Sometimes it pays not to be too optimistic.”  
  
But the next three nights were dream-free too, and Nick tentatively began to hope that Lester might be right. Maybe he’d seen the back of his nightmares. The grief remained, of course. He’d always miss Stephen, and regret how things had ended between them, but he thought that maybe he could start putting things behind him now.  
  
However, the continued absence of his nightmares only gave rise to another worry, one that he knew was silly, but that he couldn’t seem to dispel.  
  
Thus it was that late once afternoon he marched into Lester’s office and spoke without preamble.  
“I want to go home on my own tonight.”  
  
Lester looked surprised and…hurt?…but he covered it well. “Why?”  
  
“I’m worried.”  
  
“Worried about what?”  
  
Nick took a deep breath. “I’m worried that my nightmares are only gone because you’re there,” he said quickly. He paused for a response, but Lester just raised a silent eyebrow. “I know it sounds stupid, but I have to know if they’re really gone, or if it’s just because I’ve had a comfort blanket and been lulled into a false sense of security.”  
  
“Oh, so I’m a comfort blanket now?”  
  
“You know what I mean,” Nick said. “Please, I have to do this. It’s important. Do you understand?”  
  
There was a moment of silence, and then Lester sighed. “Yes, I do understand, and it’s fine. Do whatever you have to do, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
The next morning dawned, and Nick trailed into the ARC just before quarter past nine, looking disconsolate enough that both Abby and Jenny asked him if he was all right. But he waved them away and continued straight up to Lester’s office, knowing that without his bad influence the other man would have been at the ARC since at least half past eight. He failed to notice the knowing looks the two women sent after him as he climbed the ramp.  
  
Lester took one look at Nick’s expression and pointed him to a chair, asking Lorraine to fetch them both a fresh cup of coffee.  
  
“So, I’m guessing you had a nightmare, then?” the civil servant asked flatly.  
  
Nick shook his head. “Actually, no. I slept perfectly fine.”  
  
“Then what is it?”  
  
“You’ll kick me out of your office for saying it.”  
  
“No, I won’t.”  
  
“You will,” Nick insisted. “It’s…well, it’s…”  
  
“Cutter…” said Lester, in a warning tone.  
  
“I missed you,” said Nick simply. He smiled lopsidedly. “I suppose I had got used to my comfort blanket, after all.”  
  
“Oh, for goodness sake!” Lester’s exasperated tone was coloured with a hint of something that sounded like relief. “I thought you were about to tell me that you’d reconsidered or something. That you’d decided you would be all right on your own from now on.”  
  
Nick’s eyes widened. “What? Don’t be stupid. Of course I don’t want that!”  
  
“Well, I’m very glad to hear it, I must say,” Lester snapped. “It might have escaped your notice these past few weeks, but I _do_ have a heart, you know. And it’s just as easily bruised as anyone else’s.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” said Nick contritely. “I really don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for you.”  
  
“I don’t think either of us know where we’d be if it wasn’t for the other,” Lester responded. Then he grimaced. “And I think this conversation is becoming rather too sappy, don’t you?”  
  
Nick chuckled and nodded. “Absolutely.”  
  
“So I take it you’d like me to accompany you home tonight, then?”  
  
“If you don’t mind…we _could_ go back to your place if you like.”  
  
“No, I don’t think so,” said Lester slowly. “I’ve become rather used to your house. It feels more homely, somehow.”  
  
There was a pause, and then Lester tutted in irritation. “Sappy again,” he retorted. He mock-glared at Nick. “Go and find something else to do before we find ourselves in the middle of a Mills and Boon novel.”  
  
Grinning, Nick rose from his chair. “Anything you say, James. I wouldn’t want to ruin your steely reputation, after all.”  
  
Lester scowled and waved him away, although there was a hint of a smile playing around his lips as well. Passing Lorraine in the office doorway, Nick scooped a cup of coffee from the tray she was carrying, and wandered off down the ramp, humming softly to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

  
Sitting on top of the covers, with his back resting against the pillows, Nick watched as Lester got ready for bed. It was odd how quickly he’d got used to sleeping next to the other man – in fact there wasn’t much about this situation that _wasn’t_ odd – but Nick had decided he liked it rather a lot.  
  
Lester slid his shirt on to a coat hanger, and hung it on the front of the wardrobe, before turning to survey Nick on the bed.  
  
“You’re not going to get much sleep in that position,” he said, observing the way Nick was propped up.  
  
“Well, I’m not really sleepy, so I guess it doesn’t matter,” Nick replied, raising his eyebrow in a clear invitation.  
  
Lester’s response wasn’t quite the one he was expecting. If anything, the man looked apprehensive.  
  
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying…?”  
  
“Look, if you’re having second thoughts, it’s fine, really,” Nick said quickly, trying to ignore how disappointed that possibility made him feel. “We don’t have to…”  
  
“Oh, of course I’m not bloody having second thoughts!” snapped Lester abruptly. “I’m just trying not to pressure you, that’s all. You’re the one who doesn’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”  
  
“Well, it’s a good job I want to then, isn’t it?” Nick retorted in return. “Now, are you going to come over here, or what?”  
  
There were a few seconds of surprised silence, and then Lester let out a short laugh. “Not the most romantic proposition I’ve ever received, Cutter.”  
  
Nick flushed slightly. “Sorry. But you really can be extremely exasperating sometimes.”  
  
“I believe the appropriate phrase here is ‘takes one to know one’,” replied Lester loftily. Then he laughed again. “Still, it might not be the most romantic proposition, but that doesn’t make it an unwelcome one.”  
  
He sat down on the bed and swung his legs up, settling his head on the pillows and looking up at Nick. “I still maintain that that’s not the best position you could be in, though.”  
  
Nick rolled his eyes and shuffled down until he was also lying flat. Only the lamp on Lester’s side of the bed was on, and as he glanced over he could see the profile of Lester’s face silhouetted against the light. Suddenly he felt a little nervous.  
  
He didn’t have much time to dwell on it, though, because Lester suddenly turned on his side until he was pressed up against Nick’s body, a hand resting on Nick’s chest.  
  
“We’re not going to do anything that makes you uncomfortable,” Lester said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “I won’t hurt you.”  
  
“I know,” Nick replied, almost in a whisper.  
  
Leaning in, Lester kissed him, long and lingeringly. His hand slid down Nick’s torso until it could push up again underneath the hem of Nick’s t-shirt. The feeling of Lester’s fingers trailing across the skin of his stomach made Nick draw his breath in sharply, ending the kiss rather sooner than he would have liked.  
  
Lester looked down at him consideringly. “I must say, that reaction _does_ bode well…” he commented, one side of his mouth quirking upwards in a speculative smile.  
  
Then he kissed Nick again, demanding more this time, which Nick was happy to give. The hand roaming randomly across Nick’s torso was very distracting, but it did prompt him to slide his own hand on to Lester’s hip, fingertips tentatively pushing under the waistband of his boxers far enough to elicit a sudden surprised sound from the other man’s throat.  
  
Nick grinned, but he didn’t have much time to savour his triumph, as he suddenly found himself being pressed down into the mattress by a rather intent looking Lester, whose hands were scrabbling frustratedly at Nick’s t-shirt, trying to drag it off over his head.  
  
Shifting enough to facilitate the process, Nick then returned the favour, and the two garments were dropped unceremoniously to the floor beside the bed.  
  
With much freer access now, Nick let his hands explore Lester’s body as the other man kissed him deeply, biting softly on Nick’s bottom lip.  
  
But when a hand suddenly cupped his swelling cock through his shorts, he had to break away to groan loudly, thrusting up slightly to seek further contact.  
  
“James…”  
  
The only response from Lester was a sudden wicked gleam in his eyes, and a somewhat less gentle second squeeze to Nick’s nether regions, prompting another low groan from Nick as he tried to keep his composure and not just hump against Lester like a horny teenager.  
  
“Bloody hell…”  
  
“Impatient as always, I see,” Lester observed, his patented long-suffering expression rather ruined by his state of undress, kiss-swollen lips, and mussed hair.  
  
But when Nick glared at him, he shrugged. “Oh well, I suppose impatience sometimes has its merits…”  
  
Without warning he shuffled down the bed slightly, pulling sharply at Nick’s boxers until they slid down over his hips, and his erection sprang free.  
  
Suddenly, Nick felt the nerves clawing at the edge of his arousal again. What the hell was he doing? How could he and _Lester_ , of all people, be about to do this? Were they making a huge mistake?  
  
“Cutter? Cutter? Nick?”  
  
“Sorry…what? I got distracted for a moment.”  
  
“Do you want me to stop?” There was genuine concern in Lester’s eyes, and it was that, more than anything, that brought Nick to his senses.  
  
“Of course I bloody don’t. I just had a bit of a wobbly moment, that’s all. Ignore me, I’m being an idiot.”  
  
“Something else that never changes.”  
  
“Hey! I’m not…”  
  
“Oh, do shut up, Cutter.”  
  
Nick’s protests dissolved into a hiss as Lester’s hand curled around his cock, which had wilted slightly in the interim. But it had been so long since he’d had anything but his _own_ hand wrapped around it that it wasn’t long before he was back to full hardness, a bead of precome gathering at the tip as he fought not to thrust up into Lester’s hand.  
  
But when the movement of the hand stopped, Nick made a sound of disappointment and shifted his hips in frustration.  
  
“For god’s sake, don’t stop now…”  
  
But Lester didn’t appear to be listening. Instead, he was looking very intently at the drop of moisture quivering at the tip of Nick’s cock, and a few seconds later he leaned forward and carefully licked it away.  
  
“Christ!”  
  
“Somehow I just knew you were an atheist, Cutter,” Lester said lightly, and Nick couldn’t help the laugh of disbelief that erupted from his lips.  
  
“You want to have a debate about religion _now_?” he asked, in a somewhat strangled voice.  
  
“Not especially,” replied Lester. “I’d much rather do this.” And he leaned further forward and slid his lips around Nick’s cock.  
  
The moan that dropped from Nick’s lips wouldn’t have been out of place in an x-rated movie. If it had been a long time since anyone other than himself had touched his cock, it had been even longer since anyone had done _this_. And even then, it hadn’t happened very often. Helen hadn’t been particularly fond of the act, something that with hindsight didn’t surprise Nick at all.  
  
And somehow the fact that it was _Lester_ doing it now, that he could see that mouth that had so often delivered a wry repost or a scathing putdown stretched around his cock, turned him on even more.  
  
He reached out, his hand hovering for a moment before dropping to tangle in Lester’s hair. His other hand was fisted in the bedclothes as he desperately tried to hold on to some measure of control.  
  
But it had been too long, and he could already feel himself hurtling towards the brink.  
  
“Fuck, I’m not going to last…”  
  
He came as he uttered the final word, and he could feel that expert mouth working him through his orgasm, draining every last drop out of him until he was limp and trembling like a leaf.  
  
“Can I assume you enjoyed that, then?”  
  
Nick opened his suddenly heavy-lidded eyes to see Lester regarding him with a satisfied expression on his face. As he watched the other man unselfconsciously wiped away a drop of creamy liquid that was lingering at the corner of his mouth, and Nick felt another tremor go through him.  
  
He looked away for a moment, gathering his composure, and felt a hand settle on his shoulder.  
  
“Problem?” Lester sounded concerned again, and Nick hastened to reassure him.  
  
“Not at all. It’s just been a while since anything like this,” he gestured vaguely at the pair of them, “happened to me. I’m not used to it.”  
  
“I know what you mean.” Lester raised an eyebrow when Nick looked at him curiously. “You’re not the only one who’s been having problems with your wife in recent years, remember?”  
  
“Oh yes, of course. Sorry.”  
  
“Nothing to be sorry for, Cutter. Although I’d appreciate it if we could stop talking about our exes – it’s rather ruining the mood.”  
  
Fingers trailed up Nick’s thigh, passing close to his spent cock and then sliding over his stomach. Nick shuddered, and then covered Lester’s hand with his own, pulling the other man to him for a kiss.  
  
Hardness pressed against his hip suddenly made him realise he was being selfish, and that there was a very good reason for Lester not wanting to ‘ruin the mood’.  
  
But he wasn’t sure what to do next. This was still unfamiliar territory for him, and try as he might, he couldn’t completely banish the butterflies that took flight in his stomach as the thought of reciprocating.  
  
Lester seemed to pick up on his change in mood, and drew back a little. Nick sensed that another solicitous enquiry was about to come his way, and he forestalled it.  
  
“Take off your boxers,” he said quietly, deciding that he might as well take the bull by the horns. So to speak.  
  
“You don’t have to…”  
  
“I’m not a blushing virgin,” Nick insisted. “I’m a grown man, and I can do this.”  
  
“You’re not exactly demonstrating a lot of enthusiasm for the prospect.”  
  
Nick pulled Lester back in for another quick, but bruising kiss, and then let him go again. “Enthusiastic enough for you?” he asked challengingly. “Now, are you going to take your boxers off, or am I going to have to do it for you?”  
  
“Well, tempting as that offer is, I think we’ll leave that for another day…” Quickly, Lester divested himself of the rest of his clothing, and lay back down on the bed.  
  
Momentarily transfixed, Nick stared at the other man’s cock, still hard despite the brief hiatus in activities, and gulped surreptitiously.  
  
But then he felt fingers grasp his own and guide his hand forward.  
  
“It’s no different to doing it to yourself,” Lester murmured. “It’ll be fine. I want you to touch me, Nick.”  
  
It was the use of his given name, and the sudden neediness in Lester’s voice, that finally convinced Nick. Still tentative, yet strangely confident at the same time, he wrapped his fingers around Lester’s cock, stroking lightly as he explored the hard flesh.  
  
There was a sudden hitch in Lester’s breathing, and an encouraging nod, and then the other man let his head drop back on to the pillow, a look of concentration appearing on his face as Nick continued his movements.  
  
Truthfully, it was _nothing_ like taking a hand to himself. Lester was wrong about that, at any rate. But it was most definitely a good different, not a bad different. Nick found himself listening for more of those hitches, for the little noises that meant he’d hit upon a good technique, the tiny twitches that meant the normally oh-so controlled Lester was falling apart piece by piece.  
  
He would never have expected this to be so erotic, to find watching this man lose his control to be such a turn on that he could already feel his cock stirring again. It was a fascinating and wholly fantastic sight, and he couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss the Lester again, his hand moving more quickly on Lester’s cock as he plundered the other man’s mouth ruthlessly.  
  
Suddenly, he felt Lester’s body tense, and then he was coming, ribbons of come shooting over his stomach as he gasped under Nick’s mouth.  
  
Feeling absurdly satisfied with himself now, Nick watched as Lester gradually came down from the high, his chest rising and falling with his rapid panting breaths, and a sheen of sweat covering his skin.  
  
A sudden thought had him rising from the bed to grab a handkerchief from a drawer, which he used to clean Lester up a bit, musing as he did so that it was a good job he was less concerned about the fate of this hankie than Lester would undoubtedly be about one of his silk ones.  
  
The other man’s voice was unexpectedly hoarse when he spoke, and there was a slight wobble in it that made Nick’s lips curve upwards in a smug smile.  
  
“You would appear to have a talent for that.”  
  
“What can I say? I’m naturally gifted.”  
  
“And now you’re going to start getting a big head…”  
  
But the grumble was half-hearted, and Nick’s smile only widened further as he prodded Lester.  
  
“Come on, you have to move now. We’ll freeze if we don’t get under the covers.”  
  
There was a second, more inarticulate grumble, but Lester did shift himself enough that Nick could pull the duvet over them. The hankie ended up on the floor after an unsuccessful attempt to aim it in the bin, and then Nick settled down next to Lester, reversing the roles as he curled himself around the other man.  
  
“Well, you should definitely sleep well tonight,” Lester observed, as Nick yawned suddenly.  
  
“We haven’t been doing anything _that_ strenuous,” Nick objected.  
  
“Oh, you’d be surprised what can wear the human body out,” replied Lester. “Although not to worry – strenuous comes later.” He chuckled as Nick spluttered suddenly, but then sobered. “But we’ll take it as slow as you like,” he finished seriously.  
  
“Hmmm, slow doesn’t seem like such an attractive proposition at the moment,” Nick said, reaching down to cup Lester’s cock in his hand again.  
  
But Lester just laughed again and batted his hand away. “I don’t think you’ll have much luck there,” he said. “I’m no spring chicken.”  
  
“Maybe not, although I’d definitely say you’re the rooster in our little hen coop.”  
  
“Can this be? Are you actually admitting that you are subordinate to me?”  
  
Now it was Nick’s turn to laugh. “Not a chance. I’m the rival rooster, trying to end up on top.”  
  
“I’m sure that can be arranged at some point.”  
  
Nick swallowed. “We’re not talking in metaphors any more, are we?”  
  
“Probably not. But like I said, there’s no rush. Now, I think it’s time we got some sleep, don’t you? I for one do not want to walk into the ARC tomorrow looking like I’ve been up all night engaging in questionable activities.”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Nick gathered up his laptop and files after the meeting, and exited the conference room to find Jenny waiting for him in the corridor. She had that ‘I want to talk to you’ look on her face, and he eyed her warily.  
  
“Something you wanted?”  
  
“I thought that went quite well, don’t you?” Jenny replied. “You and Connor seem to have made significant progress on your theory in only a few weeks. And I think I even understood a little bit more than in your last presentation.”  
  
“Well, that’s good to know,” said Nick wryly. “Who knows, after another ten update meetings, you might even understand the whole lot.”  
  
He shifted the bundle of files under his arm as it started to slip, and Jenny quickly stepped forward and caught them as the movement made things worse, not better. Nick nodded his thanks.  
  
“Come on, I’ll carry these back to your lab for you.”  
  
Nick smiled, and wondered how long it would be before she made her _real_ opening gambit.  
  
As it turned out, not long.  
  
“Can I assume you’ve sorted things out with Lester, then?” Jenny asked, as they walked slowly down the corridor.  
  
“You know I have. I would have thought it was obvious to everyone how much our communication as improved.  
  
“Well, that’s for sure,” Jenny muttered. Nick looked at her sharply.  
  
“What’s that supposed to mean?”  
  
“It’s just that you’re possibly being a little _too_ obvious. Take today, for example – you directed about eighty percent of that presentation back there to Lester. No one else really got a look in.”  
  
Nick knew he was flushing slightly, but he was determined not to give in that easily. “Well, Lester is the one who’ll be providing the money for the equipment we need,” he said defensively.  
  
“Nick, the look in your eyes had nothing to do with budgets,” Jenny replied. She sighed. “Look, you might not have said so directly, but after the last discussion we had about how things stood between the two of you, it’s not hard to guess what’s happened. Don’t worry, I think it’s wonderful for the both of you,” she added hastily, seeing the look on Nick’s face. “But if you don’t want to become the stuff of ARC gossip, you might think about being a bit more circumspect. I don’t mean you have to deliberately hide it, but do _try_ not to go all goo-goo eyed about it.”  
  
“Hey! I’ve never been ‘goo-goo eyed’ in my life!” Nick protested.  
  
“Actually, I think that’s a pretty accurate description of what you were today,” said Jenny, smiling slightly. “Luckily for you, Lester seems to be a lot better at keeping his feelings under his hat. Maybe you could learn something from him.”  
  
Nick reflected briefly that he’d already learnt rather a lot from Lester, but then dragged his mind back to the matter in hand.  
  
“Fine, I’ll try ‘keep things under my hat’, as you put it. James probably agrees with you anyway – goo-goo eyes aren’t his style.”  
  
Jenny’s lips twitched, and Nick suddenly realised what he’d said. “Oh, leave me alone,” he muttered irritably, forestalling the inevitable teasing.  
  
“I wasn’t going to say a word,” said Jenny, and to her credit, she _did_ keep quiet as they entered Nick’s lab and she deposited the stack of files on a bench, although her expression spoke volumes.  
  
Happily, he was saved from the crumbling of Jenny’s willpower by the appearance of Lorraine at the lab door.  
  
“Oh, Professor Cutter, here you are. Lester sent me to tell you he wants to see you in his office as soon as is convenient. Something about today’s presentation.”  
  
Nick acknowledged the summons, and Lorraine nodded and left.  
  
“Seems I’m about to get another rap over the knuckles,” said Nick dryly. “Sometimes I wonder how I managed to get myself into this situation.”  
  
“But you don’t want to get yourself out of it, do you?” Jenny asked.  
  
“Not for a moment,” Nick told her. “I would never have imagined it in a million years, but I wouldn’t change it for the world now.”  
  
“I’m glad,” Jenny replied sincerely. “It’s not something I’d ever envisaged either, but you two seem to be good for each other, much to everyone’s surprise.”  
  
“Mine too.” Nick smiled. “Thanks for helping me with this.” He gestured to the files.  
  
“Oh, it was no problem. I just wanted the opportunity to grill you, that’s all.”  
  
“So I gathered. Oh well, I’d better go and see what himself wants, then. Perhaps I can distract him from telling me off for the goo-goo eyes.”  
  
“I really don’t wish to know,” said Jenny quickly.  
  
“I didn’t mean…oh, never mind. I’ll see you later.”  
  
Jenny nodded. “Good luck.”  
  
“I’m sure I won’t need it.”  
  
They exited the lab together, and Jenny turned right while Nick turned left. He was smiling as he made his way towards Lester’s office.


End file.
